China's top legislator meets foreign guests

BEIJING, Oct. 17 (Xinhua) -- China's top legislator Zhao Leji met with Vietnamese President Vo Van Thuong, Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev and Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin respectively in Beijing on Tuesday.

In the meeting with Thuong, Zhao, chairman of the National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee, noted that 2023 marks the 15th anniversary of the China-Vietnam comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership and the two countries are working to build a community with a shared future with strategic significance.

The two sides should promote cooperation in key areas and make more achievements, focusing on promoting the synergy between the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and the "Two Corridors and One Economic Circle" plan, Zhao added.

The NPC will work with Vietnam's National Assembly to further deepen the China-Vietnam comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership, Zhao said.

Noting that Vietnam-China relationship has always been a strategic choice and top priority for Vietnam, Thuong said that Vietnam will actively participate in the joint construction of the Belt and Road, strengthen pragmatic cooperation with China in various fields, consolidate political mutual trust, and bring Vietnam-China relations to new heights.

In the meeting with Tokayev, Zhao noted that China and Kazakhstan have made concrete progress in jointly pursuing the BRI since the initiative was proposed a decade ago, which brought actual benefits to people of the two countries.

The NPC will work with the Kazakh parliament in implementing the consensus reached by two heads of the state and further synergizing the BRI with the Bright Road initiative of Kazakhstan to contribute to the further development of China-Kazakhstan permanent comprehensive strategic partnership, Zhao said.

Acknowledging the notable achievements of the BRI over the past decade, Tokayev said that Kazakhstan places great importance on the development of Kazakhstan-China permanent comprehensive strategic partnership and will work with China to advance high-quality Belt and Road cooperation and bring the bilateral relations to new heights.

In the meeting with Srettha, Zhao noted that China will deepen political mutual trust with Thailand, continue to staunchly support each other, work together to build a China-Thailand community with a shared future and take the China-Thailand comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership to new levels.

Zhao added that the NPC will maintain friendly exchanges with the Thai parliament to provide legal support for China-Thailand cooperation and the Belt and Road cooperation.

Noting that Thailand highly values the development of the friendly relationship between the two countries, Srettha said that Thailand will deepen BRI cooperation with China, promote closer people-to-people and cultural exchanges and continue to increase the well-being of the two peoples.