More foreign leaders have sent messages to President Hu Jintao
and Premier Wen Jiabao, offering their deep sympathies over the
recent weather disaster in China.
The foreign leaders who have sent messages recently included
Polish President Lech Kaczynski, Indonesian President Susilo
Bambang Yudhoyoo, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva,
Chilean President Michelle Bachelet, Spanish Prime Minister Luis
Rodriguez Zapatero and Mauritian Prime Minister Navinchandra
Ramgoolam.
In their messages, the leaders extended deep sympathies to the
affected regions, voiced support for the Chinese government's
disaster relief efforts and expressed the belief that the Chinese
people will overcome the current difficulties so that normalcy will
return to the disaster-hit areas at an early date and economic
growth will continue.
Ecuadorian Foreign Minister Maria Isabel Salvado, Polish Foreign
Minister Radek Sikorski and Cypriot Foreign Minister EratoKozakou
Marcoullis also sent messages.
Prolonged low temperatures, icy rain and heavy snow have been
raging in the southern part of China in the past month.
A total of 21 provincial-level areas have been affected, with
Hunan, Guizhou, Jiangxi, Anhui, Hubei, Zhejiang, Sichuan and the
Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region being the worst hit by the severe
weather.
(Xinhua News Agency February 14, 2008)
