Chinese President Hu Jintao said in his talks with his Romanian counterpart Traian Basescu that China-Romania relations have seen stable development despite the transition of the international situation and their respective domestic situations.

"The two sides have established mutual political trust and equality, harvested mutual economic benefit and forged mutual understanding and close coordination on various international issues," Hu said, expressing his appreciation to Romania's adherence to the one-China and friendly policies to China.

"We respect the development path chosen by the Romanian people and always regard Romania as a good friend and partner in central and eastern Europe", Hu stressed.

Basescu highlighted the traditional friendly and cooperative relations between Romania and China, noting that China is a major part of the country's foreign policy.

Romania will not change its policy on the Taiwan issue, and supports the one-China policy, Basescu said, stressing that the Taiwan issue is China's internal affairs and the issue of the reunification should be resolved by the Chinese people.

Hu said that Sino-Romanian relations have entered into a new stage of development, noting that it is a joint responsibility for the two sides to consolidate and further the traditional friendship and strengthen the pragmatic cooperation in various fields to step up the bilateral relations in the new century.

"To realize such a goal, China will maintain the high-level exchanges and cement the friendly communications between the two governments, legislatures and parties", Hu vowed.

The two governments should make efforts to help the Chinese and Romanian businesses to foster cooperation and investment in some key industries of the two countries to expand economic and trade cooperation, Hu said.

The Chinese president also called on the two sides to further bilateral cooperation in fields such as culture, education, tourism and intensify the consultation and coordination on issues like human rights, United Nations reform and campaign against terrorism.

Basescu agreed with Hu's proposals to foster Romania-China cooperation, saying that Romania regards China as an important economic partner in Asia, welcomes Chinese businesses to invest in Romania and will create favorable conditions in the investment policies.

After the talks, the two leaders also attended the signing ceremony of a memorandum of understanding on bilateral cooperation and administrative assistance concerning the customs issues. Enditem

Editor:

Yan Zhonghua