China, Indonesia pledge to cement strategic partnership
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China and Indonesia Wednesday reaffirmed their commitment to a stronger strategic partnership.
The pledge came out of a meeting between Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and visiting Indonesian Vice President Boediono in Beijing Wednesday afternoon.
Boediono came to Beijing after attending the 7th China-ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) Expo and the 7th China-ASEAN Business and Investment Summit in Nanning, capital city of south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.
As two big developing Asian nations, China and Indonesia "have deepened their cooperation to tackle a string of severe challenges, such as the international financial crisis," Wen said.
Looking to the future, Wen said China hopes to work with Indonesia to deepen political trust, strengthen coordination and cooperation in all fields in order to boost bilateral strategic partnership.
Boediono said Indonesia and China could expand cooperation in trade, investment and infrastructure under the framework of the China-ASEAN Free Trade Agreement.
During another meeting on Wednesday, Boediono told Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping that his country also hopes to work more closely with China in finance and energy sectors.
Xi said the two countries should expand trade and aim for 50 billion U.S. dollars of annual bilateral trade by 2014.
In order to maintain high-level exchanges between the two countries, China welcomes Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to visit the ongoing Shanghai World Expo, Xi said.
Xi said China had noted that Indonesia will take over the ASEAN presidency next year.
"We look forward to Indonesia taking over the presidency and believe that Indonesia will play a positive role in boosting China-ASEAN relations," Xi said.
Boediono said the two countries should step up cooperation on international issues to safeguard the national interests of developing countries.
After their talks, Xi and Boediono witnessed the signing of a memorandum of understanding on financial service between China and Indonesia.
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