Beijing, August 15th—Song Tao, Minister of the International Department of the CPC Central Committee (IDCPC), met here today with Bohuslav Sobotka, former Prime Minister of the Czech Republic and former Chairman of the Czech Social Democratic Party (ČSSD).

Song expressed that Sobotka, as an old friend of the Chinese people, has played an important role in realizing the turnaround of China-Czech relations and establishing bilateral strategic partnership during his term of office as Prime Minister of the Czech Republic. The CPC and the Chinese government highly value China-Czech relations, regard the Czech Republic as an important country, and are willing to further promote friendly and in-depth exchanges among the political parties between the two countries, so as to earnestly give full play to the political guiding role for the development of relations between the two countries. The CPC is also willing to further enhance all-round exchanges and cooperation with the ČSSD.

Song noted that China is ready to align the Belt and Road Initiative with the development strategies of the Czech Republic and promote the building of the Belt and Road Initiative and the "16+1 cooperation" under the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative for constant and practical outcomes.

Sobotka expressed that he highly values Czech-China relations and speaks positively of sound cooperative relations between the ČSSD and the CPC. The Czech side actively participates in the Belt and Road Initiative and the "16+1 cooperation" under the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative, and stands ready to jointly embrace the 70th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries in 2019 with new outcomes from people-to-people and cultural exchanges and practical cooperation.

Shen Beili, Assistant-minister of the IDCPC, attended the meeting.

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