Xi's visit to promote China ties with Australia: ambassador
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China seeks to consolidate and promote its comprehensive cooperation with Australia through a scheduled official visit by Vice President Xi Jinping.
Bilateral ties can also be advanced through more frequent exchanges in various fields, said Zhang Junsai, the Chinese ambassador to Australia.
The ambassador told Xinhua that Xi is among a number of senior Chinese state officials to visit the South Pacific country in the past 18 months.
"I believe Xi's visit will achieve positive results by enhancing mutual trust and deepening cooperation," the ambassador said. "A further developed bilateral relationsship will only be positively conducive to the development of Sino-Australian ties in the years to come."
According to the ambassador, Xi is to meet with Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and will exchange views with federal and state officials as well during the visit.
Xi was also scheduled to attend an entrepreneurs forum and speak at a CEO round-table during his stay. Zhang said some 200 entrepreneurs from China's state and private sectors will attend the forum and round-table.
"China is pleased to see Australian trade, foreign and finance ministers visit China many times," Zhang said. "The governor-general of Australia, Quentin Bryce, has just concluded a successful visit to my country."
Zhang told Xinhua that the gross Sino-Australian trade volume in 2009 exceeded 60 billion U.S. dollars.
Australia is among the top 10 trading parters with China and bilateral trade between the two countries was the only one that enjoyed positive growth despite the ongoing global economic downturn.
The ambassador said that each province Xi worked in as chief leader has formed sistership relations with various Australian states.
After 38 years of development, the multi-dimensional and comprehensive Sino-Australian relations have reached new highs thanks to joint efforts from both sides, Zhang said.
The two countries can still further cooperate in such areas as trade, energy and resources, technology, culture, education, law enforcement, and tourism, he said.
"China and Australia can also better consult and cooperate with each other at the United Nations, APEC, G20, EAS, the Pacific Islands Forum and other multilateral organizations," Zhang said.
The ambassador also pointed to some of the hitches in the development of bilateral relations.
"Although the mainstream of Sino-Australian relations is developing, there are some problems and it is only normal to have problems because the two countries have different history, cultures, political systems, and religious beliefs," he said.
"The essence (of cooperation) is to stay calm and find out the crux of exchange and co-exist in harmony, while heeding and taking care of the core interests of each other."
