President Hu Jintao said
in Canberra Friday that China is committed to strengthening and
developing all-around cooperation with Australia to serve the
interests of both peoples.
President Hu made these
remarks during his visit to Australia after attending the 11th
Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Leaders' Meeting in Bangkok
earlier this week.
While addressing the
Federal Parliament of Australia, Hu first reviewed the steady
development of the relations between the two countries over the
past three decades.
"The bilateral ties have
stood the tests of time and international vicissitudes, and made
steady headway," he said. "We have always viewed our friendly ties
with Australia from a strategic and long-term
perspective."
The president stressed
that both governments and peoples wish to cultivate deeper and
broader cooperation and this is also an important policy of the
Chinese government.
"To consolidate and
develop its all-around cooperation with Australia is a key
component of China's external relations," Hu said.
He said he will have an
in-depth discussion with Australian Prime Minister John Winston
Howard on topics ranging from bilateral ties to regional and
international issues of mutual interest.
Since China and
Australia established diplomatic relations in 1972, exchanges
between them have been thriving.
In the economic field
alone, Australia had invested, by June 2003, in 5,600 projects in
China, with a paid-in investment of more than US$3.1 billion while
China had made investments in 218 projects in Australia with a
contractual value of US$450 million.
In recent years,
China-Australia trade grew rapidly from US$87 million in the early
years of diplomatic relations to US$10.4 billion in
2002.
All this proves that
China-Australia cooperation is going "deeper and broader," Hu
said, adding that the forthcoming conclusion of a series of
bilateral documents on cooperation will also help push it
forward.
"I am convinced that
China and Australia will shape a relationship of all-around
cooperation that features a high degree of mutual trust, long-term
friendship and mutual benefit, a relationship that makes our two
peoples both winners," Hu said.
(Xinhua News Agency
October 24, 2003)