Peruvian President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski and visiting Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi met here on Wednesday, with both sides pledging to promote their bilateral comprehensive strategic cooperation.

Kuzynski said his visit to China last month was a success, with plenty of consensus reached with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Peru would like to maintain high-level exchanges and promote pragmatic cooperation with China in mining, investment, infrastructure and other sectors, he said.

Peru is also willing to work with the Chinese side on international and regional issues, and hopes the 2016 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Economic Leaders' Meeting to be held here in November will witness new progress in the establishment of the Asia-Pacific free trade zone, the president said.

For his part, Wang said China would like to work with the Peruvian side to push forward major bilateral projects, start talks on a free trade agreement, and work more closely on global and regional affairs.

The Chinese side is willing to promote the development of an Asia-Pacific free trade zone with Peru, safeguard the principle of free trade, and deepen the integration of the Asia-Pacific region, the minister said.

On the same day, Wang also met with his Peruvian counterpart Ricardo Luna Mendoza.

At a press conference at Lima, Wang said China thinks it is necessary for this year's APEC meeting to take a clear stand on the need to jointly safeguard global free trade and fight against any form of protectionism.

China thinks the existing regional and sub-regional trade arrangements should be open instead of being closed, and inclusive instead of being exclusive, he noted.

International trade rules should be made after all concerned parties have equal say in the negotiations and shouldn't be determined by one or two parties, Wang said.

Trade rules should not be subjected to political motives either, since that would benefit neither international trade nor the interests of various countries, he added. Endi

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