Chinese President Xi Jinping and Belgium's King Philippe on Monday exchanged congratulatory messages on the 50th anniversary of bilateral diplomatic ties.

In his message, Xi said he attaches great importance to the development of China-Belgium relations and stands ready to work with King Philippe to take the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties as an opportunity to push for new achievements in China-Belgium relations and make new contributions to the development of China-Europe relations.

Xi pointed out that since China and Belgium established diplomatic ties, their relations have been developing constantly on the basis of mutual respect and mutual benefit.

Xi recalled that in 2014, he and King Philippe upgraded the China-Belgium relationship to an all-round friendly cooperative partnership, adding that fruitful results have yielded in bilateral exchanges and cooperation across the board.

After the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the two peoples helped each other and continued to write a new chapter of China-Belgium friendship, Xi said.

In his message, King Philippe said that since the establishment of diplomatic ties 50 years ago, bilateral friendly relations have made great progress in many areas, with fruitful results in economic and trade cooperation and increasingly close exchanges at local levels.

Noting that he has visited China several times, King Philippe said he has witnessed the rapid progress of China and the development of Belgium-China relations.

Looking into the future, King Philippe said he wishes for further strengthened Belgium-China friendly relations on the current solid basis.

Also on Monday, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang exchanged congratulatory messages with Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo.

China, Li said, is willing to work with Belgium to take the opportunity of celebrating the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties to deepen mutually beneficial cooperation, expand friendly exchanges and push for sustained and sound development of bilateral ties.

In his message, De Croo said Belgium cherishes the bilateral relations and stands ready to strengthen dialogue with China, deepen cooperation in economy, trade and sustainable development, and jointly safeguard multilateralism.