Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi (R) meets with his Kazakh counterpart Mukhtar Tleuberdi on the sidelines of the 14th Foreign Ministers' Meeting of the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) in Madrid, Spain, December 15, 2019. /Photo via .fmprc.gov.cn
Through high-level guidance and facilitation, mutual political trust between China and Kazakhstan has grown to a new level, and bilateral ties have set new objectives, Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Sunday.
He made the remarks when meeting with his Kazakh counterpart Mukhtar Tleuberdi on the sidelines of the 14th Foreign Ministers' Meeting of the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) in Madrid.
Hailing 2019 as a fruitful year for China-Kazakhstan ties, Wang detailed the high-level exchanges between the two sides.
In April, the first President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev attended the Second Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation (BRF) in Beijing and was awarded the Friendship Medal of the People's Republic of China by Chinese President Xi Jinping.
In September, both sides agreed to develop permanent comprehensive strategic partnership during Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev's state visit to China.
China is willing to maintain high-level exchanges with Kazakhstan, demonstrate important roles in jointly building the Belt and Road, and steady concrete cooperation on industrial capacity, Wang added.
For his part, Tleuberdi said friendship between the two countries dated back a long time, emphasizing that both sides will always understand and support each other on issues involving major concerns.
Kazakhstan applauded China's Xinjiang policy, said Tleuberdi, adding that his country attaches great importance to and take an active part in jointly building of Belt and Road, so as to becoming a significant corridor which is able to connect China and the Europe.
China-Norway relations get back on track
During the meeting with Norwegian Foreign Minister Ine Eriksen Soreide on the same day, Wang said that China-Norway relations have overcome difficulties and got back on track with the joint efforts from both sides.
As this year marks the 65th anniversary of the establishment of the diplomatic relations, Wang called on both sides to cherish the hard-won good situation, and continue to implement the consensus between the two heads of state.
He also called on the two sides to respect the development path of each side, take into consideration of core and major interests of each other, enhance mutual political trust, as well as properly manage sensitive issues.
China is willing to deepen pragmatic cooperation in all fields with Norway within the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) framework, and provide companies from both sides with the equal and non-discriminative environment, said Wang.
Soreide was happy with the positive momentum of Norway-China relations. She said that Norwegian King Harald V's state visit in China last year was very successful. And now multi-level exchanges are frequent between the two countries while trade and economy are developing smoothly, according to Soreide.
Norway is willing to work with China to safeguard multilateralism and free trade, and Chinese companies are welcome in Norway to take part in fair competition, said Soreide, stressing that no specific companies will be excluded from normal cooperation in Norway.
