President Lennart Meri received the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the People's Republic of China in Estonia Zou Mingrong, who visited the President to present his credentials, in Kadriorg today. Ambassador Zou Mingrong delivered the greetings of the President and Prime Minister of the People's Republic of China to the Estonian Head of State and the Estonian Government and to the people of Estonia. Ambassador Zou mentioned that from the very beginning of the diplomatic relations between Estonia and China the relations between the two countries have been built on a strong foundation and therefore have a promising future.

When accepting the credentials President Meri said that Estonia and China indeed have had very close relations through the ages. The relations are characterised by the fact that the Estonian Minister of Culture, who is going to visit China in the near future, is the twelfth high state official from Estonia to visit the world's largest country. As the President said, the commercial relations between the two countries are intensifying, but there is still a need for closer co-operation in the fields of transport, economy, culture and science.

The Estonian Head of State and the Chinese Ambassador also discussed the situation in Kazakhstan and Russia. President Meri was pleased to observe that the world's largest country and the smallest country that is going to accede to the EU are communicating as equals. The Chinese Ambassador underlined that China would always support the continuity of the independence and sovereignty of Estonia. The Erna Raid, where a Chinese team also participated, was also mentioned on the meeting.

The President asked the Ambassador to forward his condolences to the Chinese people whose relatives perished or were injured during the flooding of the Yangzi River in the last weeks.


Press Service of the Office of the President
Kadriorg, August 18, 1998

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