On the afternoon of June 11, 2002, President Jiang Zemin met with Latvian Chairman of Parliament Janis Straume at Latvia's Parliamentary Building, where they held a friendly talk.

Straume said that President Jiang's visit is a major event in the development of Latvia-China relations, which is another embodiment of the importance China attaches to the development of the friendly cooperation relations with Latvia. The past decade following the establishment of the diplomatic relation between Latvia and China has witnessed the continuous development of the bilateral relations. He said that when he led the Latvia's parliamentary delegation to visit China last year, the delegates had a full taste of the ancient Chinese culture and history and eye-witnessed the achievements of China's modernization construction, which have left deep impression on them.

Jiang told Janis Straume that though his visit to Latvia is brief, he is greatly impressed by the warmth and hospitality of the Latvian people and their friendly feelings towards the Chinese people. he held fruitful talks with President Vaira Vike-Freiberga on the previous day. They reached a lot of consensus on how to further promote the development of bilateral relations.

Jiang said that both the Chinese National People's Congress (NPC) and the Latvian Parliament are an important part of the respective political system of China and Latvia. They are the major guarantee for the stability and development of the countries, and for the people to express freely and execute their rights of governing their country and social affairs. Increasing exchanges between parliaments of the two countries will help promote mutual understanding and friendship between the people of the two countries. In the recent years, the Chinese NPC and the Latvian Parliament have carried out vigorous exchanges and each side founded a friendly cooperation group, with positive contributions made to the development of the bilateral relations.

Straume said that he totally agrees with President Jiang's positive comments on the exchanges between the two parliaments and reiterated that the Latvian parliament will stick to the One China policy, pay great attention to the development of relations with China, and stand ready to make its own efforts to further expanding and enriching friendly cooperation in the fields of trade, economy and culture between the two sides.