Beijing, May 15th—Liu Jianchao, Minister of the International Department of the CPC Central Committee, met here today with Jukka Salovaara, Permanent State Secretary at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland.  

Liu said, China and Finland are important cooperation partners to each other. The Chinese side is willing to work with the Finnish side to deepen practical cooperation in various fields and continuously forge a future-oriented new-type cooperative partnership between China and Finland. The CPC maintains various forms of contact with Finland's major political parties, and is willing to strengthen exchanges and play a positive role in facilitating the development of China-Finland relations. The Chinese side has always viewed China-EU relations from a strategic and long-term perspective, and hopes that Finland will continue to play a constructive role in the EU and push China-EU relations for healthy and stable development.  

Salovaara said, currently, Finland-China relations enjoy good development momentum, with fruitful results of cooperation in various fields. President Alexander Stubb and the Finnish government attach great importance to developing relations with China and firmly adhere to the one-China principle. They hope to strengthen high-level exchanges with the Chinese side, deepen political party exchanges, and expand cooperation in economy, trade, technological innovation, renewable energy, climate change and other fields. As a member of the EU, Finland is willing to actively promote the development of EU-China relations.  

Both sides also exchanged views on international and regional issues.