YANGON, May 25 (Xinhua) -- The upcoming state visit of Myanmar President U Thein Sein to China would certainly push the two countries' strategic and mutually beneficial cooperation towards a new high, Chinese Ambassador to Myanmar Li Junhua told Xinhua in an exclusive interview on the eve of the president's visit.
At the invitation his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao, President U Thein Sein is to pay the first ever state visit to China from Thursday to Saturday in the capacity of a Myanmar top leader after the new government took office.
Leading over 10 government ministers, U Thein Sein will pay the state visit to Beijing and there will be talks and meetings with Chinese leaders, Ambassador Li said.
Li disclosed that during the visit, a number of bilateral cooperation accords or framework agreements between government departments and enterprises of the two sides will be signed, signaling the playing of further role of potential of the two countries' economic and trade cooperation, through which peoples of the two countries could greatly benefit from the mutually beneficial cooperation.
Li also disclosed that during the visit, the two countries will issue a joint statement that will be a new breakthrough, a new push in the development of the two countries' relations and future cooperation.
Commenting on the coming into being of the Myanmar new government, Li said for over a month after the new government assumed office, politically, the parliamentary sessions ran smooth with power transfer as well. Government at different levels are also operating orderly.
Citing President U Thein Sein's first speech delivered when he was sworn in to office, Li said U Thein Sein's remarks produced a strong signal to the Myanmar people of all walks of life and the international community, saying that the new government would make greater efforts in developing economy, speed up the rate of opening door to the outside world, improve the living standard of the people positively and strengthen the mixing up of nationalities based on the foundation laid by the previous government.
He pointed out that "We have seen a new phenomenon economically, that are inducing more foreign investment, expanding foreign trade and strengthening private enterprises."
Touching on some special characteristics of the Myanmar new government's foreign relations, Li said the new government becomes more initiative, more self-confident and more active diplomatically. He cited the recent attendance at the Jakarta ASEAN Summit of and state visit to Indonesia by Myanmar president U Thein Sein who raised at the regional summit Myanmar's undertaking of alternate chairmanship in 2014.
Li also cited U Thein Sein's first office-assumption speech that clearly stated that Myanmar new government will more actively participate in the activities of the international community, especially those of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations ( ASEAN), to play the constructive role that it should do.
Li also underlined that since the formation of the new government, Myanmar received foreign guests from all spheres, launching broad and extensive exchange with them and exploring future cooperation.
China and Myanmar, linked by rivers and mountains, have a long- standing "paukphaw" (fraternal) friendship for thousands of years. Li specially mentioned the reciprocal visits between China and Myanmar at high level, saying that no sooner the Myanmar new government was sworn in than China's top political advisor Jia Qinglin, chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People' s Political Consultative Conference, and Vice Chairman of China's Central Military Commission Xu Caihou successively paid their friendly visits to Myanmar. All of these activities will display a new development of the two countries' reciprocal visits at high level and bilateral relations.
Speaking of the development of China-Myanmar economic and trade relations, Li cited the statistics as saying that China has become Myanmar's largest foreign investor and the second largest trade partner at the end of 2010.
According to an incomplete statistics, as of the end of March this year, China's investment in Myanmar has risen to 15.5 billion U.S. dollars from 12.3 billion dollars at the end of 2010.
Li predicted that the two countries' bilateral trade is certain to attain a new high this year.
Ambassador Li pointed out that President U Thein Sein's upcoming state visit to China would certainly would push the two countries' strategic and mutually beneficial cooperation towards a new high, and it would also push the two countries' traditional "paukphaw" friendship to be filled with new contents under the new situation.
Li expressed belief that under the joint efforts of the two governments, the China-Myanmar mutually beneficial and friendly cooperation would get all-fresh development.
Source: Xinhua
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