Visiting Chinese
Premier Zhu Rongji met in The Hague on July 5, 2000, with
Dutch Queen Beatrix Wilhelmina Armgard and parliament
leaders.
Zhu had brief talks in
the morning with the parliament leaders, First Chamber
President Koethals Altes and Second Chamber's First
Vice-President Frans Weisglas. He also met with some Dutch
lawmakers in the parliament building in The
Hague.
At noon, the Chinese
premier attended a luncheon hosted by Dutch Queen Beatrix
Wilhelmina Armgard. They had very friendly
talks.
Premier Zhu also had
one-hour talk with Dutch Prime Minister Vim Kok on July
4.
At a joint press conference
after his meeting with Kok, Zhu said he and Kok had a
friendly, frank and fruitful meeting on the development of
Sino-Dutch relations and a wide range of international
issues of mutual concern.
Kok
said there is mutually beneficial cooperation between the
Netherlands and China not only in the traditional areas of
economy and trade, but also in the fields such as
technology, environmental protection, agriculture, water
management and harbor
building.
The Dutch prime
minister told Zhu that his country firmly supports China's
early entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO). China's
WTO admission will serve its own interests and will surely
create more opportunities for effective cooperation between
China and the Netherlands, he
said.
On the situation of
Taiwan, Zhu said that Chinese President Jiang Zemin set
forth an eight-point policy on the Taiwan issue in 1995,
which is still the basic and all-around policy for China to
resolve the issue.
Emphasizing
that the Dutch government will continue to uphold the
"One China" policy, Kok said the Netherlands will
not develop any kind of official ties with
Taiwan.
The two leaders also
exchanged views on human rights issue. Zhu briefed Kok on
the development of human rights situation in China and
China's position on the promotion of international
cooperation in this
regard.
They agreed that the
dialogue between the European Union and China on the human
rights issue has made positive achievements. Kok said it is
necessary for different countries to develop constructive
dialogue on the basis of mutual respect, since there are
differences between countries in history, economy and social
development, among others
The
Netherlands is willing to improve understanding through
cooperation with China at all levels, he
added.
The Netherlands is the
Chinese premier's fourth leg of his trip to six European
nations.He left the country for Rome in the afternoon on an
official visit to Italy. Zhu will also have official visits
to Belgium and The European Union headquarters.