On the evening of July 1, 2004, Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing attended the Informal Meeting between ASEAN and its Dialogue Partners in Jakarta, the capital city of Indonesia. The meeting focused on the exchanges of views on the proposed ASEAN Community, relations with G-8, the Iraqi situation, the conflicts in the Middle East and international cooperation in counter-terrorism.

Earlier in the morning, Li Zhaoxing and other foreign ministers, who were attending the meeting, paid a group visit to Indonesian President Megawati Soekarnoputri. Li Zhaoxing conveyed to her the cordial greetings from Chinese President Hu Jintao. Megawati indicated that she cherishes the friendship with the Chinese leaders very much and Indonesia would like to continuously strengthen its cooperation with China in various fields such as economy, trade and energy resources.

Later in the afternoon, Li Zhaoxing met respectively with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, High Representative for the EU Common Foreign and Security Policy Javier Solana and European Union (EU) Commissioner for External Relations Christopher Patten, as well as the foreign ministers of Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the Republic of Korea. The two sides exchanged views on issues of common interest.

During their meeting, both Li Zhaoxing and Lavrov held that the frequent exchanges of views and the coordination of their stances on significant issues between the leaders of the two countries have enhanced China-Russia relations. Since this year marks the 55th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Russia, both sides will make earnest and sound preparations for the exchanges of high-level visits in the latter half of this year so as to promote continuous development of strategic cooperative partnership between the two countries.

When meeting with Javier Solana and Christopher Patten, Li Zhaoxing noted that China supports the process of the EU's integration and hopes the EU will take seriously and try to resolve China's concerns. Currently, the special attention should be given to the proper handling of the EU's ban on arms sales to China and the recognition of China's full market economy status. Javier Solana and Christopher Patten indicated that the EU attaches importance to developing relations with China and will continue to work for the resolution of relevant issues.

Li Zhaoxing and Ban Ki-moon made positive remarks on the good momentum that the comprehensive cooperative partnership between China and the ROK has maintained and expressed their firm belief that with the joint efforts by both sides, bilateral relations will enjoy continuous development.