Beijing, February 15th—Guo Yezhou, Vice-minister of the International Department of the CPC Central Committee, met here today with Thorir Ibsen, Icelandic Ambassador to China, and Grahame Morton, New Zealand Ambassador to China respectively.

Guo positively commented on China-Iceland relations, stressing that China-Iceland relations are rich in dimensions and enjoy broad space for cooperation at bilateral, Nordic, European and global levels. The Chinese side is willing to strengthen exchanges and cooperation with the Icelandic side and deepen inter-party exchanges to better benefit the people of the two countries.

Guo welcomed Ambassador Grahame Morton's assumption of the new post. He hoped that China and New Zealand will jointly implement the important consensus reached by the leaders of the two countries and strengthen communication in the spirit of mutual respect, mutual trust and mutual accommodation, so as to promote the healthy and stable development of China-New Zealand relations.

Thorir Ibsen said that the Icelandic side attaches great importance to developing relations with China. Iceland is willing to strengthen dialogue and communication with the Chinese side, deepen bilateral cooperation in various fields and regions such as economy, trade, people-to-people and cultural engagement, science and technology, climate change and Arctic affairs to constantly lift bilateral relations to new levels.

Grahame Morton said that New Zealand highly values developing relations with China and looks forward to strengthening exchanges and cooperation with China in trade, investment, biodiversity protection, supporting and assisting Pacific island countries and other fields to promote common development.

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