Chinese vice premier holds phone talk with Singaporean deputy PM

BEIJING, Dec. 29 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Vice Premier Han Zheng on Thursday held a phone conversation with Singaporean Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat over ties.

Han said that the high-level cooperation between China and Singapore is developing vigorously, and has become increasingly forward-looking, strategic and exemplary.

Not long ago, Han noted, Chinese President Xi Jinping met with Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong in Bangkok, during which they conducted strategic communication on bilateral relations and major international and regional issues, which has provided strategic guidance for the development of China-Singapore relations in the next stage.

Noting that the China-Singapore bilateral cooperation mechanism meetings are an important platform for deepening high-level exchanges between the two countries, and are playing a key role in the overall planning for bilateral practical cooperation, Han said China is willing to work with Singapore to make better use of the mechanism meetings, so as to better provide strategic planning and policy guidance for bilateral cooperation, and lift China-Singapore relations to a new level.

For his part, Heng spoke highly of the unique values and the important role of the China-Singapore bilateral cooperation mechanism meetings as a platform, saying that under the strong guidance of the leaders of Singapore and China, bilateral cooperation has pivoted with the times and achieved fruitful results.

Singapore is ready to join hands with China to make full use of the mechanism meetings to continuously deepen mutually beneficial cooperation between the two countries, he said.

Heng added that Singapore supports China in optimizing epidemic prevention and control measures, and highly commends China for effectively safeguarding the lives, health and safety of the Chinese people.