Li: China willing to work with Greece to enhance ties

China is willing to jointly work with Greece to enhance pragmatic cooperation and take forward the Belt and Road Initiative, Premier Li Keqiang said.

Li made the remarks when meeting with Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras on Friday on the sidelines of the 12th Asia-Europe Meeting summit in Brussels, Belgium.

China places high importance to developing its relations with Greece, Li said. He said China is willing to have closer high-level exchanges with Greece and deepen mutually beneficial cooperation. He also said that China encourages competent businesses to invest in Greece and is ready to expand the imports of high quality agriculture products from Greece.

He said as two ancient civilizations, China and Greece should continue dialogue on civilizations and inject impetus in mutual understanding and common development.

The two countries should also deepen culture and people-to-people exchanges, he said.

Tsipras said that Greece is now making tremendous efforts in social and economic development, and this provides big room for cooperation between China and Greece. He said he believes that the Piraeus Port project will promote cooperation on logistics and connectivity between the two countries, adding that Greece is willing to further cooperate in trade and investment under the Belt and Road Initiative.