On April 14, 2017 local time, Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli met with President Borut Pahor of Slovenia in Ljubljana when visiting Slovenia at invitation.

Zhang Gaoli first conveyed the warm greetings and best wishes from President Xi Jinping. Zhang Gaoli said that China and Slovenia enjoy profound traditional friendship and are good friends and good partners who trust each other. Since the establishment of the diplomatic relations 25 years ago, bilateral relations have always kept a healthy and stable development, setting an example of getting along well with each other among countries with different political systems, development paths, and cultural backgrounds. China is willing to join hands with Slovenia to consolidate China-Slovenia traditional friendship, deepen political mutual trust, and enrich the connotation of bilateral practical cooperation, so as to elevate bilateral relations to new highs.

Zhang Gaoli stated that China is willing to, together with Slovenia, enhance high-level exchanges and policy communication, well make top-level designs, push forward the docking of the development strategies between the two countries, and carry out practical cooperation under the framework of the joint construction of the “Belt and Road”. China will hold the International Cooperation Summit Forum on the “Belt and Road” Initiative in Beijing from May 14 to 15 this year and welcome important members of the Slovenian government to attend the high-level meetings of the forum. The China-Slovenia bilateral trade and mutual investment scale rank the top among the countries of the region. The two sides should give full play to the advantages of each other, make use of the cooperation platforms in important areas such as the “16+1 Cooperation”, and actively explore to conduct cooperation in major projects of transportation infrastructure construction and other fields. The two sides should continue to well carry out practical cooperation in such fields as aviation, machine electricity, and new energy vehicles, pay more attention and increase investment in the fields of information technology, creation and innovation, so as to inject new impetus into the improvement of quality and efficiency of China-Slovenia cooperation in the new situation.

Borut Pahor asked Zhang Gaoli to convey his warm greetings and good wishes to President Xi Jinping. He said that since the establishment of bilateral diplomatic relations, Slovenia has always stuck to actively develop its relations with China and upheld the one-China policy. Highly appreciating President Xi Jinping’s speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Slovenia advocates the trade liberation, values China’s important role in international affairs, and firmly supports the EU in deepening relations with China. They are satisfied with the high-level mutual trust between the two countries and harbor full confidence in the future of bilateral relations.

On the same day, Zhang Gaoli also held talks with Prime Minister Miro Cerar of Slovenia. Zhang Gaoli conveyed the warm greetings and sound wishes of Premier Li Keqiang. He said that China is willing to join hands with Slovenia to take the 25th anniversary of the establishment of bilateral diplomatic relations as an opportunity to enhance high-level exchanges, promote political mutual trust, and push forward practical cooperation. China stands ready to accelerate the negotiation on the signing of governmental memorandum of understanding of jointly promoting the “Belt and Road” construction, so as to boost connectivity and mutually beneficial and win-win cooperation. China will continue encouraging more enterprises with sound capability and high reputation to invest and start business in Slovenia as well as push forward the two sides to conduct cooperation in cars, aviation, pharmacy, metal processing, food processing and other key fields. Based on the construction and development demand in Slovenian airports and ports, the two sides strive to launch more major projects as early as possible. China welcomes Slovenian enterprises to explore Chinese market and expand the export of high quality agricultural products and other superior products to China. China is willing to intensify exchanges and cooperation with Slovenia in such fields as culture, education, movies and television, tourism, and civil aviation, so as to enhance the mutual understanding and friendship between the two peoples.

Zhang Gaoli pointed out that Slovenia always supports and actively participates in the “16+1 Cooperation”. China supports Slovenia to play a greater role in the“16+1 Cooperation” in forestry, tourism, think tank, people-to-people and cultural exchanges and other fields based on its own advantages as a leading country of the “16+1 Cooperation” mechanism in forestry.

Miro Cerar asked Zhang Gaoli to convey his warm greetings and sound wishes to Premier Li Keqiang. He said that currently Slovenia-China relations maintain a sound momentum of development. Last year, the bilateral trade volume reached the highest level in history. More and more Chinese tourists come to Slovenia for travel. Slovenia is willing to further enhance and explore bilateral cooperation in economy, trade, forestry, agriculture, tourism, infrastructure, winter sports, digital construction and other areas. Slovenia reiterates to continue to actively participate in cooperation in all fields under the framework of the “16+1 Cooperation” and firmly support the construction of the “Belt and Road”, and spares no efforts to realize the robust and sustainable development of bilateral relations.