Portuguese Foreign Minister Augusto Santos Silva is on a visit to China. He met with Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Beijing. They said both countries would like to deepen their ties. Our reporter Zheng Yibing has more.

ZHENG YIBING BEIJING "The visit is viewed as an important event between China and Portugal, as 2019 marks 40 years of diplomatic relations between the two countries, also the 20th anniversary of Macao's return to the motherland. Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi extended his sincerest welcome to Augusto Santos Silva. The Portuguese foreign minister will be in China until Tuesday. His first stop was southern China's Guangdong province, then nearby Macao. During his tour, a series of cooperative deals have been reached between his country and the local governments in both places. Silva told Wang in Beijing he's very happy to have made the visit. They mainly discussed the high-level exchanges between the two sides, particularly the state visits of both leaders to each country at an early date. Besides the meeting with Wang, Silva will also meet other senior Chinese officials, including Yang Jiechi, director of the Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the CPC Central Committee, and Chinese minister of commerce Zhong Shan. All the officials will take part in the tenth Joint Economic and Trade Committee Meeting between two countries. Both ministers say China and Portugal will take this opportunity to lay a more solid foundation for bilateral ties, and benefit both nations. Zheng Yibing, CGTN, Beijing."