China and France should upgrade bilateral cooperation to set an example of positive interactions, mutual benefit, win-win outcomes and friendly relations among major countries, visiting Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi said here Saturday.

Tackling the COVID-19 pandemic and its severe impact on the world calls for solidarity, Wang said during talks with French Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs Jean-Yves Le Drian.

He recalled that since the virus outbreak, Chinese President Xi Jinping and his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, have had four phone conversations while foreign ministers of the two countries have talked to each other seven times, and the Chinese and French people have been supporting and helping each other.

"This proves that solidarity and cooperation are the most powerful weapons to defeat the pandemic," he said.

Wang also noted that his visit to France during his first overseas tour under the situation of regular COVID-19 prevention and control fully reflects the importance China attaches to France as an independent major country and to the European Union (EU) as an important pole in the world.

China is willing to work with France to seek stronger bilateral ties, further promote China-EU cooperation and safeguard multilateralism more effectively, said Wang.

"The China-France relations, as one of the most stable and sound relations among major countries in today's world that undergoes changes rarely seen in a century, bear even more prominent global significance," he said.

Both sides should, under the guidance of the head-of-state diplomacy, give full play to the role of the China-France relations in promoting the relationship between China and Western countries, in order to set an example of positive interactions among major countries, he said.

"We should promote quality improvement and upgrading of the bilateral cooperation driven by large-scale project cooperation to set an example of mutual benefit and win-win outcomes among major countries," he added.

Both sides should take cooperation in innovation as a breakthrough, promote cooperation in fields such as smart cities, electric vehicles, organic agriculture and food, financial science and technology and digital economy, and jointly provide fair, just, open and non-discriminatory business environment for enterprises of both sides, so as to set an example for major countries to seek a shared future, said Wang.

Wang also called on both sides, under the banner of multilateralism, to support each other, ensure the success of the 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP 15) of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in Kunming and of the World Conservation Congress in Marseille, and carry out more three-party cooperation along the two main themes of pandemic-fighting and development, so as to set an example for major countries to benefit the whole world.

Based on the principle of seeking common ground while reserving differences, Wang added, "we should respect each other's choice of development path, core interests and major concerns so as to set an example of friendly relations among major countries."

On China-EU relations, the Chinese foreign minister stressed that there exists no fundamental conflict of interests between the two sides. "Our common interests far outweigh differences," he said.

Against the backdrop of rising uncertainty in the world, China and the EU should strengthen solidarity and cooperation, inject more elements of stability into the world, maintain international security and stability and promote the development and prosperity of all countries, said Wang.

China stands ready to work with the EU to promote the next phase of political exchanges to achieve positive results, complete the China-EU investment agreement negotiations within this year, take concrete actions to safeguard multilateralism and the free trade system and resist unilateralism and protectionism, he added.

For his part, Le Drian noted that France-China relations are very close and cooperation between the two countries is showing a good momentum for development.

He expressed appreciation for China's assistance to France in tackling the COVID-19 pandemic, saying France is willing to deepen mutually beneficial cooperation in various fields with China.

The two sides can jointly promote cooperation in vaccine research and development, ensure that vaccines become a global public product, support the World Health Organization in fulfilling its duties and improving efficiency, he said.

France hopes to deepen dialogue and cooperation with China in areas such as artificial intelligence, electric vehicles, clean energy and ecological agriculture, noted the French foreign minister.

Pledging that France will work with China to ensure the success of CBD-COP 15 and the World Conservation Congress, he said both sides should strengthen cooperation on climate change, jointly promote the development of the global digital economy and play an exemplary role in defending multilateralism.

France attaches great importance to EU-China relations and is willing to work with China to promote EU-China political exchanges in the next phase and reach an EU-China investment agreement as soon as possible, said Le Drian.

The two ministers also had in-depth exchanges of views on international and regional issues of common concern. Both agreed that maintaining and practising multilateralism is their common responsibility and top priority.
 

(People's Daily)