Chinese top legislator Wu Bangguo pledged on Friday the National
People's Congress (NPC) will promote friendly exchanges and
cooperation with the Iraqi parliament to advance bilateral
relations.
"The NPC is ready to conduct friendly exchanges and cooperation
with the newly-established Iraqi parliament, to enhance mutual
understanding and friendship between the two peoples, promote
bilateral cooperation in various fields and strengthen the over-all
development of bilateral ties," said Wu, chairman of the NPC
Standing Committee.
Wu made the remarks in a meeting with visiting Iraqi President
Jalal Talabani. He said the two countries had "traditional
friendship".
"The two countries politically respect each other and support
each other on issues concerning the core interests of each other,"
said Wu, adding bilateral trade and economic cooperation have
gradually resumed and developed.
Talabani said the Iraqi government, parliament, political
parties and people from all circles are in favor of developing
friendly relations with China.
He said Iraq is ready to learn from China's experience of
development and strengthen cooperation with China in various
fields, and he hoped Iraq-China relations would become a model of
friendly cooperation between countries.
In his meeting with Premier Wen Jiabao, Talabani said he was
touched by the friendly feelings the Chinese people have shown to
the Iraqi people and impressed with the Chinese government's
sincerity in developing ties with Iraq. He said Iraq appreciated
China's support to Iraq on economic reconstruction.
"China would like to write off Iraqi debts, offer Iraq
assistance within its ability and help train Iraqi personnel to
upgrade the country's educational and medical capacities," Wen told
Talabani.
Wen said the Chinese government would like to work with Iraq to
seek stronger cooperation in various sectors and on the basis of
mutual trust and equality.
Talabani is on a weeklong state visit to China at the invitation
of Chinese President Hu Jintao. This is the first visit by an Iraqi
president to China since the two countries established diplomatic
relations in 1958.
Besides Beijing, the Iraqi president will visit northwest
China's ancient city of Xi'an and Nanjing, capital of eastern
Jiangsu Province.
In April 2005, Talabani was elected president of Iraq, becoming
the first Kurdish president in Iraqi history.
(Xinhua News Agency June 23, 2007)
