On Sep. 5, 2013, Vice Foreign Minister Song Tao met with H.E. Declan Kelleher, the outgoing Irish Ambassador to China.

Song Tao spoke positively of the current China-Ireland relations and appreciated Ambassador Declan Kelleher for contributing to pushing forward the development of bilateral relations. Hope he will continue to play a positive role in promoting China-Ireland, China-EU relations on the new post.

Ambassador Declan Kelleher thanked the Chinese side for the support for his work. He expressed that Ireland attaches importance to the relations with China and is willing to continue to make new contributions to expanding and deepening Ireland-China relations and to advancing EU-China relations.