Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Tuesday called for steady development of the China-New Zealand relationship to create a model for international relations built on mutual respect and win-win cooperation.

Wang made the remarks when holding a video conference with New Zealand's Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta.

During the conversation, Wang reviewed China's comprehensive strategic partnership with New Zealand. Stating that the two sides have neither historical grievances nor conflicts of interests, Wang hopes the two countries can work jointly to step up mutual trust for the sake of the well-being of the two peoples and contribute to regional peace and stability.

Noting that the two countries upgraded their free trade agreement at the beginning of this year, Wang hopes both sides could take the opportunity to accelerate the planning and implementation of the Belt and Road Initiative and to explore new space for cooperation so as to push forward the high-quality development of the bilateral cooperation.

Noting that next year marks the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between the two countries, Wang said that China is ready to enhance people-to-people exchanges with New Zealand. He also welcomes New Zealand to take part in the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics.

As the Communist Party of China (CPC) is going to celebrate its 100th birthday, the Chinese foreign minister invited his New Zealand counterpart to share the joy and explained China's development path to her.

According to Wang, instead of following the Western path of colonization and exploitation, China realized rapid development through people's hard efforts and win-win cooperation with the international community. The process itself also brings lots of opportunities to the world, Wang noted.

Stating that every country has the necessity and rights to find its own development path, Wang reaffirmed that China will be committed to its development path and is ready to work with New Zealand under the principle of mutual respect to promote each other's national development and bring prosperity to the whole region.

Wang also reiterated China's stance on multilateralism and called for concrete actions from the two sides to defend multilateralism and conduct cooperation based on their advantages to facilitate the economic and social development in the Asia Pacific region.

The two sides have agreed to enhance communication on climate change and that the origin tracing of the COVID-19 should be conducted in a scientific manner.

Speaking of the human rights issues, Wang said that China has always been an advocate of peace, development, justice, democracy, and freedom, while he stressed that countries may have different ways of protecting human rights, given their different national context and development situations.

He welcomed exchanges of opinions between countries on these issues under the principle of equality and mutual respect, but pointed out that it is the people of the country that are most qualified to make a judgment.

Mahuta, for her part, conveyed her congratulations for the CPC's 100th birthday. She praised China's achievements in poverty alleviation, sustainable development, and epidemic control.

Voicing New Zealand's willingness to deepen cooperation with China in areas where both countries have already reached a consensus, Mahuta said she hopes the two sides could strengthen communication in areas that share differences to better promote the development of the bilateral ties.