On January 12, 2009, Chinese Assistant Foreign Minister Wu Hongbo had a courtesy meeting in the Chinese Foreign Ministry with a delegation headed by Philippine Foreign Affairs Assistant Secretary for Consular Affairs Domingo Lucenario, who are here for the second round of negotiations on bilateral consular agreement. Director General Wei Wei and Deputy Director General Qiu Xuejun of the Department of Consular Affairs of the Chinese Foreign Ministry and Maria Hellen M. Barber, Minister of the Philippine Embassy in China were present at the meeting.

Hailing the good relations between China and the Philippines, Wu said since the two countries established strategic cooperative ties committed to peace and development in 2005, both sides have maintained frequent exchanges of visits and the trade volume has exceeded 30 billion U.S. dollars three years ahead of schedule. President Arroyo invited a group of 100 children who survived a devastating earthquake in China last May to the Philippines for rehabilitation, for which the Chinese government and people express sincere gratitude. Recent years have witnessed rapidly growing bilateral consular relations and an increasing of personnel exchanges. The discussion on the signing of the bilateral consular agreement is conducive to the development and improvement of consular relations between the two countries and is also helpful to deepening mutually beneficial cooperation. Wu expressed hope that both sides will make concerted efforts to complete the negotiations on the consular agreement as soon as possible and make contributions to China-Philippines friendship.

Lucenario said the Philippines attaches great importance to developing ties with China and the discussion on the signing of the consular agreement is a milestone in the history of bilateral consular cooperation. The Philippine side will strive to reach consensus with China on the text of the agreement through this round of negotiations and finish initialing the agreement to create conditions for its early official signing.