Chinese, Greek FMs meet on ties (The joint statements)

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi met in Athens Thursday with his Greek counterpart Evangelos Venizelos on bilateral ties as well as international and regional hotspot issues.

They said visiting Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and Greek leaders have reached important consensus on deepening their cooperation of mutual benefit.

Both sides will make joint efforts to implement results of the visit so as to further advance China-Greece ties and China-EU relationship.

Premier Li arrived in Athens Thursday for his first official visit to Greece since taking office in 2013. 
Sources:Xinhua - globaltimes.cn
20/6/14
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• Joint statements of Deputy Prime Minister Venizelos and the Foreign Minister of the People’s Republic of China, Wang Yi

Hellenic MFA, Thursday, 19 June 2014:
 
Below is the transcript of the joint statements made by Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Evangelos Venizelos and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi at their meeting today, at the Foreign Ministry:

E. VENIZELOS: I welcome you to the Foreign Ministry. The Chinese Premier’s visit and yours are a great honor for our country and a very important opportunity for us to promote our strategic partnership.

Our economic relations have huge prospects. We believe that Greece can be China’s gateway to the European Union and the European market, and that we also have vast potential for cooperation on the political level, because we deeply appreciated China’s role as a permanent member of the UN Security Council.

We believe that China’s role in the settlement of all the pending international issues is decisive, and we thank you for your stances on the Cyprus issue and on our other critical national issues. We fully perceive China’s sensitivities on issues of foreign policy. In a few days, the six months of Greece’s Presidency of the Council of the EU come to an end, but we will make optimum use of our Presidency to help towards the deepening of EU-China relations. I welcome you again to the Foreign Ministry.

WANG YI: It is a great pleasure to have the opportunity to meet with you during our Premier’s visit. I want to stress that you are my counterpart, and, as Foreign Ministers, we have shouldered very important duties in order to promote our bilateral relations. We very much appreciate the efforts you have made in this direction. I want to mention that you are a very important Greek politician. You are the President of Pasok, and you have done much for our bilateral relations, together with New Democracy. That is why we very much appreciate your very important contribution and your efforts towards promoting our bilateral relations; that is, the overall strategic partnership between China and Greece.

I want to stress that the friendship between China and Greece benefits our two peoples. And the bilateral cooperation between China and Greece is a very important part of our relations with the European Union.

We consider Greece to be our most trusted friend and partner in the European Union. In other words, we have a relationship of mutual respect and mutual assistance – a time-tested relationship. The visit of our new Premier, Li Keqiang, will play a guiding, decisive role in our future cooperation.

As Prime Minister Samaras stressed, China and Greece are in full agreement that Greece can be a gateway for Chinese products coming into Europe, and at the same time a bridge between the two great civilizations, so that our countries can have more transactions with one another.

I want to stress that very important agreements were reached between the two Prime Ministers on the further development of our bilateral relations. This means that the two countries have a great deal of room for cooperation. That is precisely why we are doing everything we can to intensify our cooperation and expand our relations in every direction, into every sector.

Finally, I would like to invite you to visit China at a time that is convenient for you.

E. VENIZELOS: Thank you very much for the invitation, which I accept with great pleasure, and I am at your disposal, because we really have a great deal to do together. We too – the two Foreign Ministries – must follow up on everything agreed by the two Prime Ministers and the two governments.

My warm thanks for your visit here to the Foreign Ministry.
mfa.gr
19/6/14
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