Premier Li Keqiang met visiting Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic on March 31 in Beijing.

Hailing the mutual political trust, Premier Li said China and Serbia have been deepening pragmatic cooperation in different fields.

The two countries also reached consensus on various issues raised during bilateral talks held between President Xi Jinping and Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic on March 30.

Supporting Serbia’s choice of development path, China is willing to boost the comprehensive strategic partnership based on mutual respect and equal cooperation so as to jointly promote peace and prosperity in two countries and the region, Premier Li said.

He pointed out that bilateral cooperation on infrastructure construction, production capacity and industry development has made new breakthroughs with increased growth in China-Serbia trade and investment.

He also called on the two sides to further tap the potential of cooperative opportunities, enhancing cooperation within the “16+1” cooperation mechanism, and abide by the market principle and business framework in an effort to achieve sustainable development with win-win results.

The “16+1” refers to China and the 16 Central and Eastern European countries (CEEC).

China is ready to advance big cooperative projects such as the Serbia-Hungary railway and beef up cooperation in finance, customs, culture, tourism and aerospace to further expand bilateral trade and reinforce friendship between people of the two countries, said Premier Li

He hoped both sides will enhance coordination and communication under the cooperation mechanism framework of “16+1”.

Nikoli said Serbia has a friendly relationship with China, and is the first Central and Eastern European country to establish a comprehensive partnership with China.

The two countries have made great progress in trade and investment, transportation, power stations and steel plants which has promoted the Serbian economy and driven the cooperation between China and the Central and Eastern countries, he said.

He said his country is willing to expand cooperation with China under the bilateral and “16+1” cooperation framework.

He welcomed Chinese businesses to invest in his country and strengthen cooperation in infrastructure and production capacity projects, speed up building of the Serbia-Hungary railway, expand agricultural products trade and jointly explore cooperation opportunities in third party markets.