Premier's visit to France reinforces global strategic partnership

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao's four-day official visit to France from Sunday to Wednesday reinforced the two countries' global strategic partnership sealed in 1997.

He met on Monday with French President Jacques Chirac. They reached consensus on further strengthening of bilateral cooperation.

Wen said that sustainable and sound development of Sino-French relations is due to the strategic perspective and long-term views of the two sides over bilateral ties, their spirit of independence and tolerance as well as their advocacy of mutual confidence through dialogue.

He called on the two countries, both permanent members of the UN Security Council to further strengthen the exchange of high- level dialogue, coordination and cooperation in international affairs and jointly defend the United Nations' authority and deal with the challenge of traditional and non-traditional security issues.

Chirac for his part said that France and China share common views on major international issues and have very fruitful cooperation within the framework of the United Nations.

He hailed the active and important role that China plays in international affairs and said France is willing to strengthen coordination and cooperation with China in this aspect as well as in other fields such as economy and trade, science and technology, culture and youth affairs.

Chirac also reaffirmed his country's continued pursuance of the One-China policy and said that France will act to promote the development of relations between China and the European Union and make continued efforts to settle China's rational concerns.

Wen held talks later on Monday with his French counterpart Dominique de Villepin on deepening the existing comprehensive and strategic partnership between the two countries.

The two leaders oversaw the signature of 16 cooperation agreements concerning various sectors, including a big deal to purchase 150 mid-range Airbus A320 jets worth nearly 10 billion dollars.

In his speech delivered later on Monday to the National Council of French Employers, the Chinese Premier urged the two countries to consolidate and enhance bilateral cooperation in space technology, biological engineering and information technology, besides the fields of nuclear energy, aviation and railway projects.

Noting that France has become China's second largest technology cooperation partner in the European Union (EU), third largest source of direct investment and China's fourth biggest trading partner, he hoped that China's trade volume with France could be doubled in five years to hit 40 billion US dollars while bilateral all-around cooperation can be significantly enhanced.

He attended on Monday afternoon a ceremony to honor six people who have made outstanding contributions to promoting cultural exchanges between France and China, including French Minister for Culture and Communications Renaud donnedieu de Vabres and former ambassador to China Jean-Pierre Lafon.

On Tuesday, Wen visited the Ecole Polytechnique, a leading university in France, and gave there a speech to some 800 students and teachers.

During his visit in France Wen also paid visit to some French and European high-tech companies, including the European Aeronautic Defense and Space Company and aircraft maker Airbus.

France is the first leg of Wen's five-nation Europe-Asia tour, which will also take him to Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Portugal and Malaysia.

Source: Xinhua