On the morning of June 13, 2002, visiting President Jiang Zemin met with Estonian Prime Minister Siim Kallas at the Prime Minister's residence. The two sides held a friendly talk on the further development of the Chinese-Estonian cooperative relations.

Kallas, on the part of the Estonian government, first extended a warm welcome to President Jiang for his visit. He said that China, with its tremendous success in modernization drive, is in the world's spotlight. The Estonian people are quite pleased to welcome the friendly messenger of the Chinese people in their country.

Jiang said that over the past 10 years since the establishment of the diplomatic relations, China and Estonia have seen increased exchanges and deeper mutual understanding with the joint efforts of the both sides. And the two countries have made new progess in cooperation in politics, trade, economy, culture and education. Jiang said that on the previous day, he and President Arnold Ruutel have had friendly and in-depth talks and reached consensus on the orientation and guiding principles of the development of bilateral relations in the new century. China is ready to work with the Estonian government and explore new fields and ways of cooperation so that China-Estonia relations will grow steadily on the basis of mutual respect, equality and mutual benefit.

Kallas recalled China's immediate recognition of and support for Estonia when it regained independence a decade ago. Estonia-China relations have since developed smoothly without any oustanding issues. He said that his government has firmly upheld the One China policy and will continue to do so, and will strengthen friendly cooperation with China in various areas.

The two sides exchange views on the trade and economic cooperation. Jiang indicated that through ten years' development, China-Estonia economic and trade cooperation has increased in terms of scale. Estonia is now the biggest trading partner of China among the three Baltic countries, which is to the satisfaction of China. Jiang said that Estonia has advantages in forestry management and fishing industry, while China is outstanding in light industry and household appliances. There are a lot of potentials of cooperation in all these fields. After all, both countries are members of the World Trade Organization. Estonia is now speeding up its process of entering the European Union and China is implementing the third strategic layout of the modernization construction. This has brought about new opportunities and a vast space for the trade and economic cooperation between the two countries.

Kallas said that he agrees with Jiang on the opinion about further developing bilateral trade and economic cooperation. He stressed that Estonia has fine port facilities and hopes to have closer cooperation with China in this area with its high-quality service.