China and France to celebrate 60 years of diplomatic relations

Beijing and Paris agreed on Friday to take the 60th anniversary of the establishment of bilateral diplomatic relations and the upcoming China-France Year of Culture and Tourism as opportunities to "promote people-to-people exchanges between the two countries, unleash greater vitality and achieve more results", Foreign Minister Wang Yi said.

Wang made the remarks when meeting with visiting French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna in Beijing on Friday afternoon.

Next year marks the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between China and France, and it is also the China-France Year of Culture and Tourism.

The two countries will continue to realize their sense of responsibility for global affairs through their "mature and robust bilateral relations", and provide more stability to this world, Wang said.

Colonna is on a visit to China from Thursday to Friday.

Earlier on Friday, Wang and Colonna held the 6th meeting of the China-France high-level dialogue mechanism on people-to-people exchanges.

This was the first time for China to hold a meeting of dialogue mechanism on people-to-people exchanges with a European country in recent years.

Standing together, the two ministers jointly unveiled the China-France carbon neutrality center.

They also unveiled the logo for marking the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties and the logo for the China-France Year of Culture and Tourism.

Currently, France is China's third-largest trading partner and third-largest source of actual investment in the European Union, and China is France's top trading partner in Asia and seventh-largest in the world.

Over the past 60 years, the annual bilateral trade volume has increased more than 800 times, surging from only about $100 million in 1964 to $81.2 billion last year, according to the Foreign Ministry.

"At present, under the joint leadership of the two heads of state, bilateral relations have enjoyed sound growth," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning commented on Wednesday.

She noted that the two sides "have had frequent high-level exchanges" and "have worked together to respond to global challenges".