President Xi Jinping lays out comprehensive China-Serbia partnership

World Today

Chinese President Xi Jinping called on Chinese and Serbian legislative bodies to increase exchanges in various fields to contribute to relations between the two countries on Saturday.

CCTV’s Ren Xueqian reports from Belgrade, Serbia.

China and Serbia have agreed to lift bilateral relations to a comprehensive strategic partnership.

China will work with Serbia to increase high-level contacts, strengthen communications and coordination on major global and regional issues, deepen pragmatic cooperation under the frameworks of the Belt and Road Initiative, China-CEE (Central and Eastern Europe) cooperation, and international production capacity cooperation, and expand direct exchanges between the two peoples, Xi said to Serbian Parliament Speaker Maja Gojkovic.

“These fruits of cooperation will certainly boost the China-Serbia relationship, enrich the content of the comprehensive strategic partnership and bring greater benefit to the people of both countries,” Xi said.

The Serbian National Assembly is committed to Serbia-China friendship and is ready to enhance exchanges and cooperation with China’s legislature, the National People’s Congress, to promote bilateral ties in various fields, Gojkovic said.

Exchanges between legislatures will be an important component of the newly-upgraded China-Serbia comprehensive strategic partnership, Xi said to Gojkovic. The legislative bodies can improve their communication mechanisms, deepen friendly ties, and strengthen exchanges of experience in legislation, supervision and governance, he added.

Xi also urged the legislatures to promote China-Serbia mutually beneficial cooperation in economy, trade, culture, people-to-people exchanges and to enhance collaboration in international parliamentary organizations.

The Chinese president arrived in Belgrade Friday for a three-day visit to the Balkan country. It is the first state visit by a Chinese head of state to Serbia in 32 years.

More than 20 deals were signed covering trade, industrial capacity and finance. The two sides pledged to continue joint efforts to put the Hungary-Serbia railway into operation on schedule.

Story by CCTV News.


Jia Xiudong of China Institute of International Studies on China-Serbia relations

CCTV America’s Susan Roberts interviews Jia Xiudong, a senior research fellow at the China Institute of International Studies about the significance of Xi Jinping’s visit to Serbia.