At the invitation of Spanish Speaker Amengor, Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress Zhao Leji paid an official friendly visit to Spain from November 23 to 27, met with Spanish King Felipe VI and Prime Minister Sanchez in Madrid, and held talks with Senate President Roland and Speaker Amengor respectively.
When meeting with Felipe VI, Zhao Leji first conveyed President Xi Jinping's warm greetings and good wishes. Zhao Leji stated that the friendship between China and the West has a long and enduring history. In 2018, President Xi Jinping successfully paid a state visit to Spain, marking a new stage of high-level development in bilateral relations. China is willing to work with Spain to inherit and promote traditional friendship, understand and respect each other's core interests and major concerns, promote exchanges and cooperation in various fields to continuously achieve new results, join hands to address global challenges such as climate change, and achieve common development and prosperity.
Felipe VI asked Zhao Leji to convey his sincere greetings to President Xi Jinping. He stated that in recent years, the two heads of state have maintained close exchanges and the West China relations have developed healthily and steadily. Next year marks the 20th anniversary of the establishment of a comprehensive strategic partnership between China and the West. Spain is willing to further strengthen cooperation with China in areas such as trade and investment, new energy, climate change, cultural education, and language promotion, injecting new impetus into the development of bilateral relations.
During the meeting with Sanchez, Zhao Leji stated that Spain is an important strategic partner of China in Europe. The Chinese side appreciates Spain's long-term adherence to the One China principle and is willing to inherit friendship, consolidate mutual trust, and open cooperation with Spain, deepen cooperation in economy, trade, investment, culture, tourism, and other fields, create growth points for cooperation in electric vehicles, clean energy, advanced materials, green, digital and other fields, and provide a fair, safe, non discriminatory, and predictable business environment for enterprises. China has always regarded Europe as an important direction of China's diplomacy and an important partner in achieving Chinese path to modernization, and is willing to use the high level of development of China West relations to help China EU relations to achieve stability and long-term development.
Sanchez stated that Spain adheres to the One China policy. Welcome Chinese enterprises to invest and develop in the West, and we hope that both sides will continue to expand bilateral trade, electric vehicles, agricultural products, culture, sports and other fields of cooperation. Xi is willing to play an active role within the EU and promote better development of EU China relations; Strengthen international and multilateral affairs coordination with China, safeguard the authority of international law, and jointly maintain world peace and stability.
During separate talks with Roland and Amengor, Zhao Leji stated that legislative exchanges are an important component of bilateral relations. The National People's Congress of China is willing to strengthen peer exchanges at all levels with the Spanish Senate and House of Representatives, carry out mutual learning and mutual learning around legislation and supervision, and timely formulate, revise and approve legal documents conducive to bilateral cooperation; Promote exchanges between National People's Congress deputies and legislators, provide suggestions and ideas for deepening cooperation, and act as a bridge between them; Closely coordinate and cooperate in multilateral parliamentary organizations such as the Inter Parliamentary Union, and jointly practice true multilateralism. Zhao Leji also introduced the relevant situation of the People's Congress system.
Roland stated that Spain cherishes the profound friendship accumulated over the long term between the two countries and is willing to be a trustworthy friend of China. The investment cooperation between China and the West has unique characteristics and plays a demonstrative role internationally. I hope to further expand cultural exchanges between the two sides, enhance mutual understanding and friendship. The Western Senate is willing to make positive contributions to this. Amengor said that the Western Chamber of Deputies is willing to deepen exchanges and cooperation with the National People's Congress of China, and members of the parliament hope to actively participate in the friendly exchanges between the two countries, and play the role of the legislature in promoting mutual understanding and affinity between the two peoples and promoting the development of bilateral relations.
During his visit to the West, Zhao Leji met with the President of Catalonia, Ilia, in Barcelona and inspected the Chery Ebro joint venture automobile factory. He expressed his hope to deepen local cooperation between the two countries, jointly promote green development, and continuously enrich the connotation of the comprehensive strategic partnership between China and the West.