China and Greece issued a joint statement in Beijing Thursday, announcing that the two nations had agreed to build an all-round strategic partnership.

 

Greek Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis is paying a three-day official visit to China at the invitation of Premier Wen Jiabao.

 

During his stay in Beijing, Karamanlis has held talks with Wen. He will meet President Hu Jintao, top lawmaker Wu Bangguo and top political advisor Jia Qinglin.

 

The statement says leaders of the two countries reviewed the traditional friendship between China and Greece and agreed that the relationship between them has developed smoothly.

 

They agreed that the two countries have strong political relations and their cooperation in various fields has yielded good results.

 

"There remains great potential for the two countries to further expand and deepen bilateral ties," the statement says.

 

The two sides promised to enhance political dialogue and personnel exchanges at various levels in a bid to deepen their political ties.

 

The international community should deal with threats and challenges in the framework of the UN and solve international disputes by political means through negotiation and consultation, the statement says.

 

The two sides agreed that the UN should undergo reasonable and necessary reforms to improve its ability to handle threats and challenges, but emphasized that the reform should be conducted through democratic consultation and in a step by step manner.

 

The two sides expressed the belief that bilateral cooperation within the UN framework would help them better face challenges, maintain world peace, security and stability, set up a comparatively fair international order and face global problems including terrorism.

 

The two countries reiterated that UN resolutions must be respected and implemented. They also agreed to improve coordination and cooperation within the framework of the UN, improve efficiency of peace keeping actions and push for substantial progress in arms control and non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

 

Greece said it would support China's constructive role in the six-party talks on the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue.

 

(Xinhua News Agency January 20, 2006)