French President Nicolas Sarkozy to visit China

BEIJING—French President Nicolas Sarkozy will pay a state visit to China on Nov. 25-27 at the invitation of Chinese President Hu Jintao, Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao announced here Thursday.
Liu told a regular press briefing the upcoming visit will be a great event for China-France relations this year. China expects and believes the visit will promote the bilateral all-round strategic partnership up to a new stage, he said.
To consolidate and develop bilateral ties not only meets the fundamental interests of the two counties and two peoples, but also is conducive to world peace, stability and development, the spokesman added.
This will be Sarkozy’s first visit to China since he became French president in May this year. Earlier, China and France should continue to show understanding toward and offer mutual support for each other’s concerns, Chinese President Hu Jintao said here Friday. Hu made the remarks while meeting French President Nicolas Sarkozy on the sidelines of the meeting between the Group of Eight major industrialized nations and five major developing countries in Germany’s Baltic resort of Heiligendamm.
At the meeting with Sarkozy, Hu expressed satisfaction over the all-round and rapid development of the bilateral relationship. Since the establishment of the comprehensive strategic partnership between the two countries, political mutual trust has been growing, the strategic dialogue deepened, economic and trade cooperation expanded and cultural exchanges increased, the Chinese president said.
In efforts to further bilateral ties, the two countries should maintain high-level exchanges, attach importance to each other’s concerns, deepen their pragmatic cooperation and promote bilateral cultural exchanges, he said.
Hu said the two sides should continue to promote cooperation in energy, aviation, railways and other key areas, and expand mutual investment and bilateral trade. Agreeing with Hu’s views on bilateral ties, Sarkozy said he was satisfied with their two countries’ cooperation in various fields, adding that there has been a strong momentum for bilalteral economic and trade cooperation.—Xinhua