On July 19, 2001, President Jiang Zemin met with A. P. Voitovich, Speaker of the Upper Chamber of the National Assembly of Belarus, and V. A. Popov, Speaker of the Lower Chamber of the National Assembly of Belarus.

Extending warm welcome to Jiang on behalf of the Belarussian National Assembly, Voitovich and Popov congratulated Jiang on his fruitful talks with President Lukashenko and Prime Minister Yermoshin.

They also briefed Jiang about the National Assembly, expressing the willingness of the Belarussian National Assembly to step up cooperation with the National People's Congress of China in all areas including international affairs.

Expressing pleasure of making acquaintance with Voitovich and Popov, Jiang conveyed the cordial greetings from Chairman Li Peng of NPC to them. He went on to say that Li is looking forward to their official visit to China in the latter half of this year.

Jiang noted that though this is his first visit to Belarus, he knows that the Belarussian people have made tremendous contributions to the victory of the world's anti-fascist war, adding that he has always admired the unbending national spirits of the Belarussian people.

Jiang said that he just had fruitful talks with President Lukashenko on how to further deepen China-Belarus relations, during which the two sides agree to commit themselves to establishing all dimensional cooperative relations based on the principles of peaceful co- existence, mutual trust and coordination. He added that this consensus is of great importance and will serve as a guide for the long-term, stable and healthy development of China-Belarus relations.

Jiang noted that China and Belarus have enjoyed long-standing friendship and the two peoples have rendered each other mutual sympathy, understanding and assistance, which serves as solid foundation for the sound and stable development of China-Belarus relations. He said that China is very pleased with the all-round mutually beneficial cooperation between the two countries in such areas as politics, economy and trade, science and technology, culture and education since the two countries forged diplomatic ties nearly 10 years ago, which is constantly expanding and deepening. He noted that next January will mark the 10th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between the two countries. He expressed the conviction that China-Belarus relations will be upgraded to a new stage using the anniversary as an opportunity.

Jiang said that there have been frequent contacts and close cooperation between the National People's Congress of China and the Belarussian National Assembly in recent years, adding that this has played an irreplaceable role in promoting the development of bilateral relations. He went on to say that the two parliaments have also conducted fruitful cooperation in international arena in recent years, which can be called a new area for bilateral cooperation. He expressed the conviction that the two sides will continue to intensify this kind of cooperation, which will contribute to the maintenance of the interests of the two countries in international affairs and to the development of bilateral relations between China and Belarus.