BEIJING — Finland Foreign Minister Timo Soini will pay an official visit to China from Feb 26 to March 1, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang announced on Feb 22.

Geng said that China expects the upcoming visit to improve bilateral ties, as the two sides working to build a new partnership.

Hailing the sound development of bilateral ties, Geng said that the two sides had witnessed close high-level exchanges, and cooperation in areas such as the economy, trade, environment protection, innovation, and the Arctic research had all progressed.