On 26 August local time, State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi had a meeting with Prime Minister Mark Rutte of the Netherlands in The Hague during his official visit to the country.

Wang conveyed the warm greetings from Chinese leaders to Prime Minister Rutte. He commended the long-standing mutual respect, understanding and trust as well as level of openness between China and the Netherlands, describing the bilateral relationship as mature and able to stand tests. He expressed China’s readiness to work for the orderly resumption of personnel exchanges, speed up mutually beneficial cooperation, and contribute to global economic recovery with the Netherlands under the new normal of COVID-19.

Wang underscored the importance of China and the Netherlands, a country known for its openness, working together to tackle the impact and challenges of unilateralism and stand up for multilateralism. The two countries need to set a fine example of upholding free trade, mutual openness and fair competition, and jointly advance the building of a community with a shared future for mankind. China welcomes a more important role of the Netherlands in the EU and beyond.

Rutte warmly welcomed Wang’s visit and asked him to convey sincere greetings and best wishes to President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang. Taking note of the rapid growth of bilateral ties in recent years, he said that the Netherlands values its relations with China and hopes to further expand cooperation, especially in upholding multilateralism. The Netherlands commends China’s achievements in COVID-19 response and hopes to enhance cooperation with China to fight the virus.

He also said that given the two countries’ friendship, the Netherlands stands ready to have open dialogues with China on a wide range of topics, so as to increase mutual understanding and friendship. Europe, China and the US need to enhance instead of withdrawing from communication and coordination. Decoupling serves no one’s interest and the world is too small to decouple. The Netherlands hopes that major forces of the world will come together in meeting global challenges.

On the same day, Wang also held talks with Foreign Minister Stef Blok of the Netherlands.