Myanmar president meets Chinese Vice President in Nay Pyi Taw

Myanmar President U Thein Sein (R) shakes hands with visiting Chinese Vice President Li Yuanchao in Nay Pyi Taw, Myanmar, Dec. 16, 2014. (Xinhua/U Aung)

Myanmar President U Thein Sein met with visiting Chinese Vice President Li Yuanchao in Nay Pyi Taw on Tuesday.

With deepened "Pauk-phaw" friendship between the peoples of China and Myanmar, the bilateral ties have achieved important progress this year, with leaders of the two countries having reached consensus on deepening comprehensive strategic cooperation, and announced a number of new cooperation proposals and measures, Li said.

China is ready to join hands with Myanmar in strengthening strategic communication and implementing signed cooperation agreements, bringing into full play the bilateral cooperation mechanism, especially the newly established ones, deepening cooperation in such fields as infrastructure, power, agriculture, finance, technology, law and security, education and culture, and boosting bilateral cooperation on major projects to serve the improvement of livelihood of the two peoples, Li said.

Congratulating Myanmar on its assumption of the rotating chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) this year, Li said that China always places priority to ASEAN in its neighborhood diplomacy, and is dedicated to forging a closer China- ASEAN community with a common destiny and building the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road.

China is looking forward to implementing the "2+7 Cooperation Framework" proposal, further upgrading the China-ASEAN strategic partnership along with the ASEAN countries for the maintenance of peace, stability and development in the region, Li said.

For his part, Myanmar President U Thein Sein said that Myanmar values the traditional friendship with China.

He expressed gratitude to the China's support for Myanmar and other ASEAN countries in their connectivity construction.

Myanmar highly values China's participation in the construction of its special economic zones, and is ready to push for prompt progress of bilateral cooperation projects.

On the same day, Li also held talks with his Myanmar counterpart U Nyan Tun and attended together with him the closing ceremony of the China-ASEAN Cultural Exchange Year 2014.