Vice Premier meets former German, French PMs

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-08-09 18:14

BEIJING - Chinese Vice Premier Li Keqiang met here Saturday with Gerhard Schroeder, former Chancellor of German Federal Government, and former French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin, who were here to attend the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympic Games.

Li spoke highly of Schroeder's endeavors to promote China-Germany relations when he was in office and then out of office. He said China attaches great importance to the ties with Germany and make joint efforts with the German side to score the development of the bilateral relations.

He also expressed his hope that Schroeder could continue to play his positive role in advancing bilateral ties.

Schroeder said Germany and China share a solid foundation on bilateral ties and German government values its relations with China and he would continue to promote bilateral relations in all fields.

When conferring with Raffarin, Li said China values its relations with France, expressing his hope that the two sides could make joint efforts to consolidate bilateral cooperation.

China highly appreciates what Raffarin has done to cement the China-France relations, Li said.

Raffarin extended congratulations to the big success of the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics.