On December 9, 2004, Premier Wen Jiabao of the State Council, who was paying a formal visit to the Netherlands, met with the Queen of the Netherlands Beatrix Wilhelmina Armgard and the two sides held friendly talks.

Beatrix warmly welcomed Premier Wen to visit the Netherlands. She expressed the hope that the two countries can continue to deepen their economic and trade relations and at the same time give priority to exchanges and cooperation in environmental protection, medicine and health care as well as culture. Beatrix also expressed heartfelt gratitude to Wen for taking a special trip to mourn for her father at noon on the previous day.

Wen noted that with increasing mutual political trust and growing economic and trade cooperation, friendly cooperation between China and the Netherlands has witnessed significant progress, which would be impossible without the support of Her Majesty and other members of the royal family. Wen also shared with the queen the consensus and cooperation results achieved during his visit, indicating that China will continue working with the Netherlands to expand and deepen the bilateral friendly cooperation in various fields.