On the afternoon of May 17 local time, on his way for an official visit to Brazil, Premier Li Keqiang took a technical stopover in Shannon of Ireland to pay a transit visit to the country.

When Li Keqiang and his wife Mme. Cheng Hong arrived at the Shannon Airport, as representatives of the government, Finance Minister and other senior officials of Ireland as well as Xu Jianguo, Chinese Ambassador to Ireland, greeted them at the airport.

Li Keqiang expressed that China and Ireland enjoy profound traditional friendship. Since the establishment of the strategic reciprocal partnership between the two countries in 2012, bilateral relations and practical cooperation in various fields have entered a new stage of development. I hope that, through this transit visit, political mutual trust is further deepened, practical cooperation is expanded and people-to-people and cultural exchanges are enhanced between China and Ireland so as to make the bilateral relations even better and bring the two peoples closer.

During the transit visit, Li Keqiang will hold talks with Prime Minister Enda Kenny of Ireland and exchange in-depth views with him on deepening bilateral relations and cooperation, and jointly meet the press. Both sides will also sign documents on bilateral cooperation in such fields as facilitation of personnel exchanges and agriculture.

The flight from Beijing to Shannon of Ireland took 11.5 hours and the flight from Shannon to Brasilia, capital of Brazil, will take another 10 hours.