Chinese Premier Li Qiang meets with Uruguayan President Luis Alberto Lacalle Pou at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, Nov. 23, 2023. (Xinhua/Li Tao)

Chinese Premier Li Qiang met on Thursday with Uruguayan President Luis Alberto Lacalle Pou in Beijing.

Li said that since the establishment of diplomatic ties 35 years ago, the two sides have always adhered to mutual understanding, mutual trust and mutual support, and bilateral relations have achieved high-level development.

Noting that China and Uruguay jointly announced on Wednesday the establishment of a comprehensive strategic partnership, Li said China is ready to work with Uruguay to follow the strategic guidance of the two heads of state, and promote bilateral relations with new vitality and new achievements.

Li called on the two sides to set a good example of bilateral relations featuring mutual respect and trust between countries with different social systems, mutual benefit and complementarity between countries with different economic sizes, and mutual learning between countries with different cultural backgrounds.

The premier expressed the hope that the two countries will continue to firmly support each other on issues concerning their core interests and major concerns.

He called on the two sides to uphold the principle of mutual benefit and win-win cooperation, give full play to their complementary advantages, and take the signing of the Belt and Road cooperation plan as an opportunity to promote the continuous growth and improvement of bilateral trade and improve trade and investment facilitation.

He also called on the two sides to strengthen cooperation on clean energy, communications, sci-tech innovation and finance, and expand people-to-people exchanges in fields such as culture and tourism, education, sports and sub-national cooperation.

China supports Uruguay in playing a bigger role in regional affairs, and stands ready to work with Uruguay to deepen overall China-Latin America cooperation, promote the building of a China-Latin America community with a shared future, uphold multilateralism and an open world economy, and better safeguard international fairness and justice, Li said.

Lacalle said that the establishment of the comprehensive strategic partnership between Uruguay and China has opened up broad prospects for the development of bilateral relations.

Noting that Uruguay is firmly committed to closer relations with China and actively participates in the joint development of the Belt and Road Initiative, Lacalle said Uruguay is willing to uphold its traditional friendship with China, deepen political mutual trust, strengthen exchanges and cooperation with China on economy, trade, investment, culture, education and sub-national areas, and speed up the building of free trade partnership between Uruguay and China as well as between the Mercosur (Southern Common Market) and China to promote the continuous and in-depth development of bilateral relations.