China to strengthen exchanges, friendship with Austria: senior diplomat

MUNICH, Germany, Feb. 19 (Xinhua) -- China, having overcome the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, stands ready to strengthen exchanges with Austria at all levels and deepen mutual trust and friendship, a senior Chinese diplomat said here on Saturday.

Wang Yi, director of the Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, made the remarks when meeting with Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg on the sidelines of the 59th Munich Security Conference.

Wang, also a member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, said that China-Austria relations have been developing well and bilateral cooperation in various fields has made new progress.

He hopes Austria will adhere to the one-China principle.

The complex changes in today's world have shown that in the face of global challenges, the world needs openness rather than exclusiveness, connectivity rather than isolation, and multilateralism rather than unilateralism, said Wang.

He called for Austria to support openness and inclusiveness and strengthen bilateral economic, trade, scientific and technological cooperation.

Schallenberg said that Austria and China have supported each other and jointly coped with the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has fully demonstrated the importance of cooperation in tackling crises.

Austria firmly upholds the one-China principle, which is one of the country's diplomatic norms, he noted.

The Austrian foreign minister said that Austria is ready to cooperate with China with an open attitude and that his country opposes decoupling and firmly supports globalization.

He added that China has important international influences and he expected China to play a greater role on the Ukraine issue to de-escalate the situation.

Wang stressed that the Ukraine crisis should not last and all parties should think about how to achieve a ceasefire.

China has always been committed to promoting peace talks and will continue to make constructive efforts, he added.