国内英语新闻:Chinese premier, Finnish PM exchange congratulations on anniversary of ties

BEIJING, Oct. 29 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and his Finnish counterpart Juha Sipila exchanged congratulatory messages Wednesday on the 65th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between their two countries.

In his congratulatory message, Li said Finland was among the first Western countries to establish diplomatic ties with the People's Republic of China, adding that the China-Finland relationship has always been developing in a healthy and steady manner.

The Chinese premier also said that currently, high-level political exchanges have been frequent, political trust has been further strengthened and exchanges have been fruitful in all fields.

Li stressed that China would like to take the anniversary as a fresh opportunity to work with the Finnish side to further consolidate the political foundation between the two sides, explore potential in economic and trade cooperation and enlarge people-to-people exchanges in order to build a new type of future-oriented partnership between the two countries.

In Sipila's congratulatory message, he said bilateral cooperation has been further expanded and deepened since the two countries established diplomatic ties. He stressed that Finland was the first Western country to sign a bilateral trade agreement with China and economic and trade cooperation has played a pivotal role in the development of bilateral ties.

Noting that China and Finland share many interests, the Finnish prime minister expressed the hope that both sides could maintain their momentum of high-level reciprocal visits and further deepen their friendly bilateral relationship.