A highest level welcome from the Chinese President Xi Jinping to the Dutch King Willem Alexander. The King is paying his first state visit to China since he ascended to the throne in 2013. It's also a return visit to President Xi's visit to the Netherlands last year.
During their talks, President Xi Jinping said an open and pragmatic partnership between the two countries is being built and progressing steadily.
China and the Netherlands should facilitate trade and investment, deepen cooperation in water and agriculutre, and discover cooperative potential in aerospace, biochemicals and the internet.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (R) holds talks with King of the Netherlands Willem-Alexander in Beijing, capital of China, Oct. 26, 2015. (Xinhua/Ma Zhancheng)
The Dutch King said the two countries can also coordinate closely in major international issues like peacekeeping and combating climate change.
The King also promised continued support for the Asia Infrastrucutre Investment bank and China's Belt and Road Initiative.
The two leaders also spoke of boosting China's relations with the European union .
"In the first half of next year, the Netherlands will assume the rotating presidency of the European union . We hope under the EU framework, the Netherlands will play an even greater role in promoting China-EU relations, especially on important projects like connecting the Europe Investment Plan with the Belt and Road Initiative, interconnectivity, bilateral investment, treaty negotiations and feasibility studies for a possible free trade area," said Liu Haixing, Director General, European Affairs Dept., Chinese Foreign Ministry.
The Netherlands is China's third largest trading partner in the EU, with nearly US$50 billion of trade from January to September.
China has over 500 companies in the Netherlands, and over 3,000 Dutch companies are operating in China.
More cooperation is to come, as the two leaders witnessed the signing of 15 agreements, covering areas from finance, trade and civil aviation to movies and health and even pandas.
"In particular I want to point out that in the 15 agreements signed, there is one about panda cooperation. We believe sending pandas to the Netherlands will further consolidate the basis of friendship of our two peoples," Liu Haixing said.
