Chinese, C American, Caribbean trade unions to further friendship

BEIJING—Trade unions of China and seven central American and Caribbean countries on Wednesday pledged to further friendship and cooperation.
“The All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU) is ready to further friendly relations with trade unions of central American and Caribbean countries under the principle of independence, equality, mutual respect and mutual non-interference in each other’s internal affairs, and make joint efforts to promote the sound development of international trade union movements,” ACFTU President Wang Zhaoguo said in a meeting with trade union leaders from Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Panama and Dominica. Wang is also vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the 10th National People’s Congress, China’s top legislature.
The trade union leaders are here on a visit invited by ACFTU.
Jose Pinzon, the representative of the trade union leaders and general secretary of the General Central Confederation of Workers of Guatemala, said that the trade unions from central American and Caribbean countries sincerely congratulated the Communist Part of China on its 17th National Congress.
He said they would like to further strengthen friendly cooperation with the Chinese trade union and will adhere to the one-China principle and support China’s reunification cause.
The 10th meeting of the Sino-Mongolia Joint Commission of Trade and Economy was held here Monday and both sides agreed to strengthen cooperation in trade and economy.
Delegates from China and Mongolia exchanged views on the cooperation in various fields including mining, transport and energy. The two sides agreed to support enterprises from the two countries in strengthening cooperation.
The cooperation in various fields between China and Mongolia has been strengthened continuously in recent years, said Chen Jian, assistant to the commerce minister of China.
Ya. Sodbaatar, vice minister of Road, Transportation and Tourism of Mongolia, said one of Mongolia’s priorities in foreign policies is to build long-term, steady and friendly relations with China. Mongolia encourages Chinese enterprises to invest in Mongolia, he said. The ninth meeting of the Sino-Mongolia Joint Commission of Trade and Economy was held in Beijing in 2005.
Chinese Vice Premier Wu Yi and her Russian counterpart Alexander Zhukov held a meeting in Hangzhou, capital of east China’s Zhejiang Province, to prepare for the regular meeting between the prime ministers due to be held in Moscow in November. Wu said Sino-Russian strategic and cooperative partnership had stepped into the second decade. The bilateral trade had exceeded 30 billion U.S. dollars in the first eight months and could reach record high at the end of the year. She said the two countries had improved the trade structure and cooperation on energy resources, nuclear power, science and environmental protection had made remarkable achievement.
She particularly mentioned the two countries should speed up the cooperation on infrastructure and wood intensive processing.
Alexander Zhukov said “the Year of China” in Russia had enhanced the cooperation in all fields, the trade between the two countries had increased and enterprises cooperation had been vigorous. He said Russia would hold the Winter Olympic Game in 2014 and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting in 2012, and this would bring about rare chance for economic cooperation between Russia and China.
He hoped the two sides would expand machinery and electronic product trade, and strengthen the infrastructure construction of the port and the border trade. After the meeting, the two sides signed an agreement on establishing a trade council on machinery and electronic product.