China's Vice Premier Han Zheng meets Singaporean leaders

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Chinese Vice Premier Han Zheng on Friday met respectively with Singaporean President Halimah Yacob and Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, pledging to further promote bilateral ties.

Han, also a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, is in the city-state for a three-day visit starting Wednesday.

Han said China and Singapore have viewed each other's development as opportunities for themselves, and innovatively forged a relationship featuring mutual learning and mutually beneficial for a win-win cooperation.

The two countries established an all-round cooperative partnership progressing with the times when Chinese President Xi Jinping paid a state visit to Singapore in 2015, ushering the bilateral ties into a new era, said Han.

Chinese Vice Premier Han Zheng (L) meets with Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong in Singapore, September 21, 2018. /Xinhua Photo

The leaders from both countries have met several times this year and reached important consensus on bilateral cooperation in the new era, Han added.

He called on both sides to set priorities for future cooperation and to strengthen cooperation on the Belt and Road construction so as to further advance bilateral ties to progress with the times.

Han said China is ready to work with Singapore to take the opportunity to build a closer China-ASEAN community with a shared future and jointly safeguard the rules-based multilateral trading system.

For their part, Halimah and Lee said Singapore-China ties have entered a new stage while the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative has brought great opportunities for all-round pragmatic cooperation.

Singapore is willing to play a constructive role in promoting ASEAN-China ties, they said, adding that the Singapore-China mutually beneficial cooperation will contribute to regional stability and development.

Stressing that international trade should not be a zero-sum game, the Singaporean leaders said Singapore firmly supports free trade and open market, and is willing to jointly safeguard the rules-based multilateral trading system.

Chinese Vice Premier Han Zheng (2nd L) visits the Singapore City Gallery in Singapore, September 20, 2018. /Xinhua Photo

During his three-day visit, Han also co-chaired four bilateral high-level cooperative meetings with Singapore Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean and met with Deputy Prime Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam.

Han and Teo visited a monument commemorating late Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping as this year marks the 40th anniversary of Deng's visit to Singapore.

(Top image: Chinese Vice Premier Han Zheng meets with Singaporean President Halimah Yacob in Singapore, September 21, 2018. /Xinhua Photo)

Source(s): Xinhua News Agency