国内英语新闻:China commends Greek respect for COSCO port deals

BEIJING, Jan. 30 (Xinhua) -- China on Friday spoke highly of Greece's decision to respect existing deals with China's shipping conglomerate COSCO Group on Piraeus port.

According to reports, Greek Alternate Shipping Minister Theodoros Dritsas said the new government will respect all deals signed with COSCO .

"We think highly of the new government's statement on Piraeus," said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying at a daily press briefing on Friday.

Calling the project "a paradigm of mutually beneficial cooperation between China and Greece," Hua said the project is good for economic and trade cooperation.

She also expressed hope that existing bilateral agreements between the two countries will be abided by and implemented.

COSCO has held a 35 year management lease for Piers II and III at Piraeus port since 2008 and began running the container terminals in 2009.

Commercial traffic through the port has increased eight-fold since COSCO's takeover, attracting companies such as ZTE and Hewlett-Packard to use the terminals as logistics centers.