WELLINGTON, March 10 – At the invitation of the ruling National Party of New Zealand, a CPC goodwill delegation headed by Liu Jieyi, vice-minister of the International Department of the CPC Central Committee, visited New Zealand from March 7 to 10.

During the visit, Liu held talks respectively with Peter Goodfellow, president of the National Party, and David Shearer, leader of the opposition Labour Party. He also met with John Allen, chief executive and secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, and leading officials of the New Zealand China Council.

Liu talked about the ideas of the 18th CPC National Congress and the on-going annual sessions of the National People's Congress and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, underlining the important opportunities brought about by China's development for deeper cooperation with mutual benefits between China and the rest of the world. He affirmed that China wishes to see closer exchanges and cooperation with New Zealand, with a view to further developing bilateral ties and contributing to world peace, stability, development and prosperity.

The New Zealand side expressed the willingness to seize the current opportunities to comprehensively deepen cooperation with China for the benefits of the people of New Zealand, China, and the rest of Asia-Pacific. Political parties of New Zealand spoke of shared readiness to strengthen interparty exchanges and cooperation with the CPC for further development in New Zealand-China relations.

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