Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan Met with Indonesian, New Zealand and Swedish Foreign Ministers



On July 28, Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan met Foreign Ministers Goff of New Zealand, Shihab of Indonesia, and Lindh of Sweden. They exchanged views on bilateral relations and regional and international issues of common concern.

When meeting Indonesian Foreign Minister Alwi Shihab, Foreign Tang expressed his satisfaction with the current development of bilateral relations, and reaffirmed China's support to the Indonesian government's efforts in safeguarding territorial integrity and national unity. Foreign Minister Tang also congratulated and welcomed Indonesia's being the coordinator country in ASEAN-China relations, promising China will actively cooperate with Indonesia to further push forward continuously good neighborly partnership of mutual trust between China and ASEAN and between China and Indonesia.   Foreign minister Tang expressed his pleasure in meeting his New Zealand counterpart Phil Goff, and expected to meet him again in Beijing soon to exchange ideas on bilateral ties and issues of common interest. China is willing to make efforts together with New Zealand to further enhance the bilateral relations.  Goff, on his part, said the present New Zealand-Chinese relations are developing smoothly in all areas, and reaffirmed his government's position of sticking to the "One China" policy and not establishing any official ties with Taiwan.   In his meeting with Swedish Foreign Minister Anna Lindh, Foreign Minister Tang expressed his hope that Sweden will actively promote Sino-European friendly cooperation and mutual interest in various fields during its rotating presidency of the European Union in the first half of next year, and further push forward Sino-European relations.  

In the morning of the same day, Foreign Minister Tang and other foreign ministers attending a series of ASEAN meetings called on Thai Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai.