Q: What is your comment on the just-concluded visit by Italian Prime Minister to China?

A:Italian Prime Minister Giuliano Amato paid a three-day visit to China from 15 to 17 January. During his visit, President Jiang Zemin, Premier Zhu Rongji and Vice Premier Qian Qichen have met and talked with him respectively. The two sides have held in-depth exchanges of views on bilateral relations as well as international and regional issues of common interest and reached wide consensus. Both sides have commented positively the smooth development of the friendly relations and cooperation between the two countries in all fields in recent years and agreed that Sino-Italian relations have great potentials and hold out broad prospect and that in the future, the two sides should further strengthen personnel exchange, economic relations and trade, cultural exchange and cooperation in the judicial field including joint efforts in combating organized crimes. The two countries have reached agreement on signing a cooperation agreement in the relevant field. The two sides also agreed to continue consultation on major international issues and maintain good cooperation in the UN and other international organizations so as to make the new century a century of shared peace, tranquil life, elimination of poverty and common development for all the peoples in the world as well as a century of mutual exchange and common progress among various civilizations in the world. The visit was a complete success and both sides expressed their satisfaction towards it.