Greek President Karolos Papoulias meets with Vice Foreign Minister Zhang Zhijun

From February 5 to 6, 2010, Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Zhang Zhijun held political consultations with Greek Deputy Foreign Minister Spyros Kouvelis in Athens, called on Greek President Karolos Papoulias and held a telephone conversation with Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou.

Vice Foreign Minister Zhang Zhijun meets with Greek Deputy Foreign Minister Spyros KouvelisVice Foreign	Minister Zhang Zhijun holds consultations with Greek Deputy Foreign Minister Spyros Kouvelis

During the consultations, the two vice foreign ministers reviewed the status quo of China-Greece comprehensive strategic partnership and exchanged in-depth views on making planning for the future bilateral ties. Greece attaches great importance to developing friendly cooperation with China, while China deems Greece a trustworthy and reliable partner of cooperation in the EU and on the international arena.

Greek President Papoulias met with Zhang and his delegation at the presidential palace. Zhang extended Chinese President Hu Jintao's congratulation to Papoulias on his re-election, expressing belief that the president will make even greater contributions to the development of bilateral ties in his new tenure. Papoulias thanked Hu for the congratulation and asked Zhang to convey his sincere greetings to the Chinese president. Papoulias said that as an old friend of Chinese people, he will as always support the development of the relationship between Greece and China. Papoulias said China shipping giant COSCO's taking over of the operation of Piraeus container business is of great importance to the deepening of economic and trade cooperation between the two countries. He said the two sides should work closely to ensure the success of the project.

On the morning of February 6, Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou held a telephone conversation with Vice Foreign Minister Zhang. Papandreou asked Zhang to convey his invitation for Premier Wen Jiabao to pay an official visit to Greece. The Greek prime minister said he looked forward to participating in the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai.

Chinese Ambassador to Greece Luo Linquan and Deputy Director-General Xu Feihong of the Department of European Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs accompanied Zhang during relevant activities.