On April 26, 2002, Vice President Hu Jintao, on an
official visit to Singapore, met with Singaporean Senior
Minister Lee Kuan Yew.
Hu first conveyed
greetings from President Jiang Zemin, Chairman Li Peng and
Premier Zhu Rongji. He said that the Singaporean people are
hard-working and intelligent, and have achieved admirable
results. Lee is an old friend of both Chinese leaders and
the Chinese people, and has paid great contribution to the
development of Sino-Singaporean ties, specially to the
establishment of diplomatic ties of the two countries before
leaving his office as prime minister.
Hu said
he and the Singaporean leaders have reached an important
consensus during meetings with them regarding how to push
the bilateral relations between the two countries to a new
stage. He expressed his belief that with the joint efforts
from both sides, Sino-Singaporean relations will surely move
forward continuously..
Commenting on the issue
of fighting terrorism, Hu said that China persistently
opposes and condemns all forms of terrorism, adding that
China is of the opinion that comprehensive measures should
be taken to eradicate the rootstock of terrorism by tackling
this problem both on the surface and at the root. Lee agreed
with this.
Both sides expressed deep concern
over the Middle East situation. Hu explained China's
persistent position on the Middle East issue. He pointed out
that the Middle East issue is of long historical making and
is very complicated. Facts have proven that trading violence
with violence will get nowhere and it is
imperative to stop the conflicts and bring the Middle East
issue back to the track of political settlement. Lee said
that the dragging on of the Palestine-Israel conflict will
have a severe negative effect on the world.
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