国内英语新闻:China, Latvia pledge to boost military ties

RIGA, May 14 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Defense Minister Liang Guanglie here on Monday met his Latvian counterpart Artis Pabriks, with both sides pledging to enhance bilateral military cooperation.

During the meeting, Liang said that China attaches great importance to developing defense and military ties with Latvia and is willing to enhance mutual understanding, strengthen mutual trust, deepen friendship, and promote cooperation so as to push the bilateral military ties to a new level.

He noted that over the 21 years since the establishment of diplomatic ties, relations between the two countries have maintained a sound momentum of development.

The two sides have maintained close high-level contacts, deepened political trust, and reaped fruitful results in cooperation in various areas such as economics and trade, culture, education, medicine and transportation, he said.

He also said China appreciates Latvia's adherence to the one-China policy and support to China on issues related to its core interests.

For his part, Pabriks said China plays an important role in maintaining peace and prosperity in the Asia-Pacific region and that Latvia appreciates China's foreign policies based on mutual respect and equality.

Latvia is willing to make joint efforts with China to expand people-to-people exchanges, deepen pragmatic cooperation and promote continuous development of bilateral military ties, Pabriks said.

Liang arrived in Riga on Saturday for a three-day official visit. He is currently on a three-nation tour that had already taken him to the United States and will also take him to Poland.