Greek President Prokopis Pavlopoulos highly valued Chinese President Xi Jinping's upcoming visit to Greece, expecting the visit would push forward Greece-China relations and Europe-China relations to a higher level, the president said in an exclusive interview with CCTV.

Pavlopoulos applauded the sound development of bilateral relations, saying it is at the highest level in history. He noted Greece's active participation to the second China International Import Expo (CIIE), viewing the event as a good chance to upgrade the comprehensive cooperation between the two countries.

Greece attended the second CIIE with a business delegation comprising 68 companies led by its Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis. In an exclusive interview with CGTN on Monday, Mitsotakis welcomed China's further opening-up while highlighted the great potential for the bilateral trade cooperation.

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Meanwhile, Pavlopoulos reiterated Greece's support to the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) as Greece was one of the first European economies to join the BRI.

According to him, the two sides are expected to discuss China-European relations. Greece supports closer ties between China and the EU, said Pavlopoulos.

Pavlopoulos paid a state visit to China in May to attend the Conference on Dialogue of Asian Civilizations. He recalled the visit in the interview and highly praised President Xi's initiative of holding dialogues between different civilizations left a deep impression on him.

Xi is expected to meet with Pavlopoulos and Mitsotakis during his stay. According to the Chinese Foreign Ministry, the two sides will issue a joint statement on further strengthening the comprehensive strategic partnership and the two leaders will also attend cultural interaction activities to jointly promote exchanges and mutual learning between the two civilizations.