Chinese Premier Li Qiang, meeting Irish president in Dublin, calls for increased bilateral relations
- Li, the first member of Chinese leadership to visit Ireland since 2015, holds talks with Michael Higgins as well as with Irish prime minister Leo Varadkar
- Ireland is the only EU nation to hold a trade surplus with China
Chinese Premier Li Qiang, meeting with Irish President Michael Higgins in Dublin on Wednesday, called for more mutually beneficial cooperation with Ireland as he continued to push for better relations with Europe.
Li, the No 2 Chinese leader, offered to deepen cooperation in trade and investment, green development and technological innovations as well as educational and cultural exchanges.
“Our two countries should jointly safeguard a free and open international trade system, maintain the stability and smooth flow of the global industrial chain supply chain, and practice genuine multilateralism,” Li told Higgins, according to a readout by the Chinese foreign ministry.
“We should bridge differences through dialogue, resolve disputes through cooperation, promote the improvement of global governance, promote common development, and inject greater stability and more positive energy into a world of turbulence and chaos,” he was quoted as saying.
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According to China’s state broadcaster CCTV, China will also unilaterally grant visa-free treatment to Ireland “to facilitate exchange of people of the two countries”.
