国内英语新闻:Chinese premier's Asia visit conveys peace, friendship, cooperation: FM

BEIJING, June 3 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao's four-nation Asia tour, which took him to South Korea, Japan, Mongolia and Myanmar and a tripartite summit of China, South Korea and Japan, was fruitful and widely applauded, Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said Thursday.

The week-long tour was conducted against the backdrop that China needs to strengthen mutual trust and further deepen cooperation with the four countries while certain complex and sensitive issues in the region needed to be properly handled, Yang told reporters.

The premier made the visits with confidence and hope for peace, friendship and cooperation, he said.

POLITICAL MUTUAL TRUST PROMOTED

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao speaks during the third trilateral summit in South Korea's southern resort island of Jeju on May 29, 2010. Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, South Korean President Lee Myung-bak and Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama met in the trilateral summit with the aim of mapping out future cooperation in East Asia.

During his visits, Premier Wen repeatedly emphasized the importance of mutual trust in relations and cooperation between nations, and expounded China's position on its peaceful development, its friendly policies toward neighboring countries, and its notion of building a harmonious world.

Wen also stressed that China would never seek hegemony and that China's development poses no threat to any other countries, Yang said.

Leaders of the four nations said they attached great importance to China's role. They believed that China's development is critical for peace and prosperity of the region and the world at large. They expressed their willingness to keep high-level exchanges with China and to strengthen communication and coordination on major issues.

Wen and South Korean leaders agreed that both China and South Korea are important countries in East Asia and have broad common interests, and that the two countries should continue to push forward the bilateral strategic cooperative partnership.

In Japan, Wen pointed out that China sees Japan as a strategic partner, not a competitor or a rival. He said the two neighbors should view each other as partners so as to have peaceful coexistence, long-lasting friendship and common development.

In Mongolia, Wen stressed that the development of good-neighborly partnership of mutual trust between China and Mongolia serves the fundamental interests of the two peoples and contributes to peace, stability and common development in the region. The Mongolian side reiterated its firm adherence to the one-China policy and strong support to China on the questions of Taiwan and Tibet.

In Myanmar, Wen said China respects the Myanmar government and people for their choice of a development path in line with this country's conditions, and wishes Myanmar stability, unity and development. He said China would like to join hands with Myanmar to push forward the development of a good-neighborly cooperative relationship.