Vice-President strengthens bond with the Netherlands

Vice-President Han Zheng underlined China's readiness to advance its ties with the European Union through pragmatic cooperation during a visit to the Netherlands from Wednesday to Friday.

There are no fundamental conflicts of interests between China and the EU, and the two sides share greater complementary strengths, Han told Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte during the visit.

Han noted that the momentum of China's economic recovery is better than expected, which will offer impetus to the global recovery and provide broader room for bilateral pragmatic cooperation.

He highlighted China's readiness to conduct wide-ranging communication with the Netherlands to consolidate mutual trust, explore the direction for cooperation under new circumstances and promote the healthy growth of bilateral ties.

Rutte said he looks forward to a speedy recovery in exchanges between the two countries and expressed hope that the two countries can deepen pragmatic cooperation and scale up cooperation in science and technology in response to climate change.

During a meeting with Dutch King Willem-Alexander, Han underlined the immense potential for China and the Netherlands to bolster cooperation over green and low-carbon development and response to climate change.

He expressed hope that his visit can help implement the key consensus between the heads of states of the two countries and give further impetus to the bilateral comprehensive cooperative partnership.

He called upon the two nations to jointly respond to challenges, saying that countries of different civilizations should uphold mutual respect, understanding and offer each other support so as to build up consensuses through exchanges and promote win-win outcomes from cooperation.

The Dutch king noted that China has secured widely recognized results in solving challenges in water resources and sanitation facing its huge population, and the two sides have both played key roles in sustainable development and environmental protection.

He urged the two nations to scale up cooperation in promoting global carbon neutrality and emission cuts.