BEIJING, Nov. 12 -- China and Spain can strengthen the alignment of their development strategies, give full play to their economic complementarity, and foster new growth drivers in order to pursue shared development and prosperity, Chinese Premier Li Qiang said here on Wednesday.

As the world economy is experiencing sluggish recovery and global trade and investment are losing momentum, China is willing to work with Spain to continuously tap into the potential of bilateral trade, steadily expand trade volume and optimize trade structure, Li said when meeting with King Felipe VI of Spain, who is on a state visit to China.

"China supports more competent companies to invest in Spain, expand industrial and supply chain cooperation in fields such as photovoltaic energy, green hydrogen and power batteries, and explore cooperation in future industries such as artificial intelligence," Li noted.

He expressed the hope that Spain will create a fair and predictable market environment for Chinese enterprises. The two sides can also jointly explore third-party markets, deepen people-to-people and cultural exchanges and cooperation, and boost the tourism industry, he said.

Noting that both China and Spain are supporters and beneficiaries of economic globalization and free trade, Li urged the two sides to strengthen coordination and cooperation to jointly safeguard the global economic and trade order and uphold international fairness and justice.

It is hoped that Spain will continue to play a positive role in facilitating China-EU cooperation, Li added.

He said that since the establishment of diplomatic relations, China and Spain have always respected each other as equals, with bilateral ties developing in a healthy and steady manner, and fruitful achievements made in cooperation across various fields.

Noting that President Xi Jinping and King Felipe VI conducted in-depth exchanges of views on major strategic issues on Wednesday morning, Li said the two countries should carry forward the traditional friendship, firmly support each other in terms of core interests and major concerns, consolidate political mutual trust, deepen mutually beneficial cooperation, and continuously enhance the well-being of the two peoples.

King Felipe VI said the relations between the two countries have maintained a strong momentum of development since President Xi's successful state visit to Spain in 2018, adding that Spain firmly adheres to the one-China policy and is willing to continue to be a reliable partner of China.

Noting that this year marks the 20th anniversary of the comprehensive strategic partnership between the two countries, King Felipe VI said Spain is willing to maintain close high-level exchanges with China, strengthen the alignment of development strategies, expand mutually beneficial cooperation in fields such as trade, investment, science and technology, and green energy, and promote people-to-people and cultural exchanges in tourism, culture, education, language and other areas.

Spain highly appreciates the four global initiatives proposed by President Xi and is willing to maintain close multilateral coordination with China to support multilateralism and the role of the United Nations, he said, stressing that Spain will play a positive role in promoting the steady development of EU-China relations.