Chinese premier holds talks with Dutch PM

BEIJING -- Chinese Premier Li Qiang held talks with Prime Minister of the Netherlands Mark Rutte on Wednesday in Beijing, vowing to promote the healthy and stable development of bilateral ties.

Li said that since the establishment of the open and pragmatic partnership for comprehensive cooperation between the two countries in 2014, the development of relations between China and the Netherlands has been on a fast track, with fruitful cooperation in various fields and tangible benefits for the two peoples.

China is willing to work with the Netherlands to continue to carry forward the spirit of open and pragmatic cooperation, promote the steady development of bilateral relations and achieve more win-win results, Li said.

He said that China and the Netherlands are both committed to free trade and should continue to open wider to each other and strengthen practical cooperation. This will help consolidate and deepen bilateral relations, serve the fundamental interests of the two peoples and inject more stability and certainty into the world, he added.

"The two sides should continue to expand the scale of economic and trade cooperation, tap the cooperation potential in artificial intelligence, green transformation and silver economy, and strengthen innovation cooperation in offshore wind power, photovoltaic power generation and hydrogen energy to provide stronger impetus for the development of the two countries," Li said.

He said that China will continue to foster a market-oriented, law-based and world-class business environment, and welcomes more Dutch companies to invest in China. It also encourages more Chinese companies to invest and develop in the Netherlands, and hopes that the Dutch side will provide more convenience for Chinese people to visit the Netherlands, he added.

On China-Europe relations, Li said China always believes that cooperation should be the mainstream of China-Europe relations, and partnership is the most correct positioning for both sides.

China welcomes Europe to share the opportunities of China's mega-scale market and hopes that Europe will prudently introduce restrictive economic and trade policies and use trade remedy measures, Li said, adding that China is willing to work with the Netherlands to promote the sustained, sound and steady development of China-Europe relations.

Rutte said that the open and pragmatic partnership for comprehensive cooperation between the two countries has yielded fruitful results over the years. He said the Dutch side cherishes its friendship with China, adheres to the one-China principle, and is willing to strengthen mutual learning, expand mutually beneficial cooperation, deepen cultural and people-to-people exchanges with China, and jointly tackle climate change and other global challenges.