Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi (L) meets with
Thai Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya in Phuket, southern Thailand

On July 22, 2009, Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi met respectively with Indian Foreign Minister SM Krishna, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Japan Hirofumi Nakasone and Thai Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya in Phuket, Thailand, on the sidelines of Foreign Ministers' Meeting of the ASEAN Regional Forum.

During the meeting with his Indian counterpart SM Krishna, Yang said China-India relations have maintained a sound momentum of all-round development. The bilateral trade volume between India and China has been growing rapidly and exceeded 50 billion U.S. dollars in 2008, with China becoming India's largest trade partner. The two countries have conducted fruitful cooperation on culture and defense. China attached great importance to China-India strategic co-operative partnership and strived to work with India to earnestly implement the important consensus reached by the leaders of the two countries, build up strategic trust and enhance mutually beneficial cooperation in economy, trade, infrastructure construction, agriculture and energy, Yang said. He also urged both sides to take into consideration each other's concerns, properly handle differences and push bilateral ties for faster, better and more comprehensive development.

Krishna said that India and China play an extremely important role in the region. India attaches great importance to its strategic cooperative partnership with China and is ready to work with it to consolidate and keep closer bilateral ties. India would like to make joint efforts with China to strengthen coordination on international and regional issues and continue to remain committed to resolving the issues between the two countries through dialogue and negotiations, so as to push forward bilateral ties.

In his meeting with Hirofumi Nakasone, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Japan, Yang said China-Japan relations have maintained a sound momentum of development in general and are facing important opportunities for further development. As the international and regional situations are undergoing profound changes, the two countries are facing increasing common challenges and their shared interests have also been expanding. He urged both sides to enhance and expand exchanges and cooperation in all areas from a strategic and long-term perspective and push China-Japan strategic reciprocal relations for sustained, in-depth development.

Hirofumi Nakasone said it is gratifying to see that the two countries have been expanding their dialogue and cooperation in a wide range of areas. Japan hopes to continue the momentum of high-level exchanges with China and properly handle individual issues in bilateral ties in a bid to enrich their strategic reciprocal relations.

During the meeting with Kasit, Yang said over the past year, Thailand, as the current host country of ASEAN, has made enormous efforts in promoting ASEAN integration and enhancing regional cooperation in East Asia, with major progress made in advancing pragmatic cooperation in East Asia. Yang said Thailand is an important cooperative partner of China in Southeast Asia and the friendly cooperation of mutual benefit between the two countries has been developing smoothly in all areas. China attaches great importance to ties with Thailand and is ready to join hands with Thailand to further advance pragmatic cooperation in agriculture, investment and tourism, so as to promote common development and enrich the connotations of China-Thailand strategic cooperation.

Kasit said the two countries have enjoyed long-term friendship and carried out fruitful cooperation in bilateral and multilateral affairs. Thailand is ready to continuously keep closer trustworthy relations with China, tap the potential of cooperation and deepen cooperation in all fields for the benefit of both peoples.