Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on Tuesday welcomed and then held talks with Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, who just arrived in Beijing for an official visit to China from Tuesday to Thursday.
The two government leaders agreed to enhance ties and cooperation between the two countries. Li said at the meeting with his Singaporean counterpart that the relationship between China and Singapore is based on mutual respect, equality and mutual benefit, with the all-around and mutually beneficial cooperation constantly deepened.
China is willing to work with Singapore to guide the bilateral ties in the right direction of development to push forward the inter-government projects for new progress, and to strengthen cooperation on humanities, society governance, defense and law enforcement security, while maintaining close communication and coordination on international and regional affairs, the Chinese premier said.
Noting that China is the largest trading partner of Singapore, and Singapore is China's largest source of foreign investment, Li said China is willing to better dock its Belt and Road Initiative with Singapore's development strategy, to further enhance trade and investment cooperation between the two countries.
The Chinese premier stressed that China welcomes more Singaporean enterprises to invest and develop in China, not only with coastal areas, but also with China's central and western regions, to jointly promote the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), the negotiation on the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between China and Singapore, as well as the cooperation on finance, science, technology and innovation.
China's high-speed railway is of advanced technology, safety and reliability, and higher cost-performance ratio, and China hopes Singapore can support Chinese companies on getting involved in the construction of the Singapore-Malaysia high speed railway project, Li said.
Li stressed that ASEAN is the prior direction in China's diplomacy with its neighboring countries, and China hopes and supports Singapore, as the coordinator of China-ASEAN relations and the rotating chair of ASEAN next year, to continue to play a constructive role for China-ASEAN relations and East Asia cooperation and development, while maintaining regional peace and stability and promoting common development and prosperity.
For his part, Lee Hsien Loong positively evaluated the bilateral relations and said the three inter-government cooperative projects between China and Singapore are making smooth progress.
Lee said that Singapore is willing to work with China in the Chongqing Connectivity Initiative, to push forward the upgrading of the Singapore-China FTA and the negotiation on the RCEP, and to promote the cooperation on finance, investment, aviation and information technology sectors.
The Singaporean prime minister welcomed Chinese enterprises to take part in the construction of the Singapore-Malaysia high-speed railway project, and said Singapore is willing to play a constructive role in promoting China-ASEAN strategic partnership.
