Vice-president hails steady growth, fresh progress of China-Cyprus ties

China and Cyprus have always treated each other with mutual respect and as equals, setting a model of friendly cooperation for the international community, said Vice-President Han Zheng on Friday while meeting with Cyprus' President Nikos Christodoulides on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

In his remarks, Han said that China-Cyprus ties have maintained steady growth, with practical cooperation and people-to-people exchanges making fresh progress.

This year marks the 55th anniversary of diplomatic relations and the fifth anniversary of the China-Cyprus strategic partnership, Han noted.

He expressed China's readiness to work with Cyprus to consolidate strategic mutual trust, deepen win-win cooperation and intensify multilateral coordination in order to build a more fruitful strategic partnership for the benefit of the two peoples.

Christodoulides said that the Cyprus-China strategic partnership has yielded fruitful results in recent years. Cyprus firmly adheres to the one-China policy and will always be China's trustworthy partner, he added.

The Cypriot president expressed readiness to strengthen high-level exchanges, consolidate strategic mutual trust, deepen cooperation in science and technology, agriculture and tourism, and enhance multilateral coordination.

With the European Union and China facing common challenges, he said that Cyprus firmly supports constructive EU-China dialogue and calls for joint efforts to address the challenges.