Through high-level guidance and facilitation, mutual political trust between China and Kazakhstan has grown to a new level, and bilateral ties have set new objectives, Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Sunday.

He made the remarks when meeting with his Kazakh counterpart Mukhtar Tleuberdi on the sidelines of the 14th Foreign Ministers' Meeting of the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) in Madrid.

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Hailing 2019 as a fruitful year for China-Kazakhstan ties, Wang detailed the high-level exchanges between the two sides.

In April, the first President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev attended the Second Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation (BRF) in Beijing and was awarded the Friendship Medal of the People's Republic of China by Chinese President Xi Jinping. 

In September, both sides agreed to develop permanent comprehensive strategic partnership during Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev's state visit to China. 

China is willing to maintain high-level exchanges with Kazakhstan, demonstrate important roles in jointly building the Belt and Road, and steady concrete cooperation on industrial capacity, Wang added. 

For his part, Tleuberdi said friendship between the two countries dated back a long time, emphasizing that both sides will always understand and support each other on issues involving major concerns. 

Kazakhstan applauded China's Xinjiang policy, said Tleuberdi, adding that his country attaches great importance to and take an active part in jointly building of Belt and Road, so as to becoming a significant corridor which is able to connect China and the Europe. 

China-Norway relations get back on track 

During the meeting with Norwegian Foreign Minister Ine Eriksen Soreide on the same day, Wang said that China-Norway relations have overcome difficulties and got back on track with the joint efforts from both sides.

As this year marks the 65th anniversary of the establishment of the diplomatic relations, Wang called on both sides to cherish the hard-won good situation, and continue to implement the consensus between the two heads of state. 

He also called on the two sides to respect the development path of each side, take into consideration of core and major interests of each other, enhance mutual political trust, as well as properly manage sensitive issues. 

China is willing to deepen pragmatic cooperation in all fields with Norway within the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) framework, and provide companies from both sides with the equal and non-discriminative environment, said Wang. 

Soreide was happy with the positive momentum of Norway-China relations. She said that Norwegian King Harald V's state visit in China last year was very successful. And now multi-level exchanges are frequent between the two countries while trade and economy are developing smoothly, according to Soreide. 

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Norway is willing to work with China to safeguard multilateralism and free trade, and Chinese companies are welcome in Norway to take part in fair competition, said Soreide, stressing that no specific companies will be excluded from normal cooperation in Norway.

The Chinese official also met with his Indonesian counterpart Retno Marsudi, during which Wang called for further mutual support.

Both sides should further cooperate to better preserve the interests of developing countries, Wang said, delivering China's firm belief in multilateralism and free trade.

China welcomes more qualified products into its market, he noted.

Retno echoed those remarks and spoke highly of the relationship between his country and China. He hopes to see more cooperation in trade and investment.

He seeks to work with all related parties to sign an agreement on regional comprehensive economic partnership (RCEP) to achieve win-win cooperation.

The relationship between China and the Philippines is going to provide new opportunities, Wang said when meeting with Philippine Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin.

According to the Chinese foreign minister, China is ready to work with the Philippines to implement the important consensus reached between their two heads of state and will actively push for substantive progress in bilateral oil and gas cooperation in accordance with the two countries' memorandum of understanding.

Locsin agreed with that assessment, saying that his country is ready to work with China to push for progress in oil and gas cooperation.