Top legislator's visit to Norway helps promote bilateral ties, cooperation

OSLO－Top legislator Li Zhanshu made an official, friendly visit to Norway on Wednesday through Saturday to promote the development of Sino-Norwegian ties.

Li, chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, met with Norwegian King Harald V, Prime Minister Erna Solberg and President of Parliament Tone Wilhelmsen Troen.

Li conveyed President Xi Jinping's greetings to King Harald and offered congratulations on the Norwegian National Day, which fell on Friday.

Li said that during King Harald's successful visit to China last year the two heads of state made strategic plans for the development of bilateral relations in the new era. As this year marks the 65th anniversary of the establishment of Sino-Norwegian diplomatic relations, the two sides are expected to seize the opportunity to cement their friendship and expand cooperation on the basis of mutual respect and treating each other as equals.

King Harald expressed gratitude for China's friendliness to Norway and said his country admires China's tremendous achievements in development. Norway is ready to strengthen cooperation with China in such fields as winter sports, he said, and will make efforts to help China successfully host the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.

In his meeting with Solberg, Li said that although Sino-Norwegian relations have experienced ups and downs, friendship and cooperation has always been the main theme of their ties. As the two countries share interests in safeguarding the current global mechanism and building an open world economy, they should jointly support multilateralism and free trade. The two countries have similar development concepts and share strong economic complementarities, Li said, so the outlook of bilateral cooperation is broad.

Norway is welcome to participate in the construction of the Belt and Road Initiative, Li said, and bilateral cooperation on economy, trade, environmental protection, science and technology, people-to-people exchanges and tourism is expected to forge ahead.

"China hopes Norway will provide a fair, just and non-discriminatory business environment for Chinese enterprises' investment and operation in Norway," he said.

Solberg said bilateral cooperation has maintained sound momentum since the normalization of bilateral ties. She said that she expects the two countries to push forward talks on signing a free trade deal and to deepen cooperation in such areas as maritime affairs, shipping, fishery and environmental protection. She also spoke of Norway's will to advance communication and collaboration with China on issues concerning the United Nations, coping with the climate change and Arctic affairs.

When meeting with Troen and later with members of the Parliament's Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defense, Li spoke of China's development path and political system.

"The reasons that China continues to make new development achievements are that we have embarked on a development path that suits our national conditions. This is the path of socialism with Chinese characteristics," he said.

Li said that China's National People's Congress is willing to work with Norway's Parliament to implement the important consensus reached by the leaders of the two countries, strengthen exchanges at all levels, enhance understanding and trust through frank dialogues, and create a favorable environment for pragmatic cooperation.

Troen said Li's visit holds great significance as it is the first visit of a Chinese leader since the two countries' bilateral relations were normalized in 2016. Norway's Parliament is willing to engage in all-around exchanges and cooperation with the NPC and make positive contributions to the development of ties between the two countries.

The two legislators also exchanged views on jointly safeguarding the multilateral trade system, sustainable development and other issues of common concern.

On Thursday, Li attended an economic and trade conference in honor of the 65th anniversary of Norway-China diplomatic relations. He said in a speech that President Xi's proposal of the high-quality development of jointly building the Belt and Road and China's policy of further expanding opening-up have provided new opportunities for the common development of all countries. The two countries' enterprises are expected to seize the opportunity and tap cooperation potentials.

During the tour, Li visited Chinese skiers who were training in Norway and encouraged them to train hard and promote bilateral friendship.

He also visited an ecological agriculture project and an oil and natural gas processing plant. He also met with local officials in Norway's southwestern county of Rogaland and its southern city of Stavanger.

Norway is the first leg of Li's 10-day European tour, which will also take him to Austria and Hungary.