China keen on making good relations with neighbors

The just-concluded visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping to Mongolia which shares a 4,710-km-long land border line with China highlighted China's keenness to make good relations with its neighbors. [Special coverage]

Describing his two-day trip to Mongolia as "visiting relatives," Xi quoted a Chinese saying to illustrate the closeness of the two countries in terms of geographic position and psychologic linkage.

"The more frequent relatives visit each other, the closer they will become," so goes another Chinese saying. The frequent visits by the top Chinese leader demonstrated China's good-neighborly policies.

FREQUENT VISITS

Xi's Mongolia visit, his second one-country foreign trip since taking office in March 2013, has charted the course for future development of bilateral relations, which enhanced mutual trust, promoted economic cooperation and deepened traditional friendship between the two countries, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Friday.

Xi's first one-country foreign trip was made last month to South Korea, another close neighbor of China, which was an important step for him to put his philosophy of "amity, sincerity, mutual benefit and inclusiveness" into practice in dealing with neighboring countries.

Early in February this year, Xi attended the opening ceremony of the Sochi Winter Olympic Games, where the two leaders of China and Russia discussed ways of advancing ties between the two neighboring countries.

Besides, to build mutually beneficial ties with its neighbors, China established strategic partnerships with Turkmenistan and Kyrgyzstan last year, and upgraded its bilateral ties with Indonesia and Malaysia to comprehensive strategic partnerships.

Xi, at a conference on diplomatic work in October last year, stressed the necessity of good diplomatic work in neighboring countries, saying the neighboring region has major strategic significance.