PARIS — Visiting State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi held talks in Paris on Jan 24 with his French counterpart Jean-Yves Le Drian on bilateral ties.

Wang is in Paris for the 18th consultation of the coordinators for the China-France Strategic Dialogue.

During the meeting, Wang said the strategic partnership between China and France is marked by mutual understanding and mutual support, adding that the strategic cooperation of the two countries on such important issues as the Belt and Road initiative and climate change has fully reflected the high level of the bilateral ties.

He also noted that China and France firmly support the multilateralism system and are dedicated to promoting world peace and development. Based on this common belief, the China-France strategic partnership enjoys broad consensus among the peoples of both countries.

China is willing to strengthen coordination with France on improving global governance in a bid to better safeguard rule-based multilateralism and maintain the international system with the United Nations as the core.

The foreign minister also stressed that China, taking the 55th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between China and France as an opportunity, is willing to promote the bilateral relations to a higher level.

He called on the two countries to maintain high-level exchanges and expand cooperation in education, culture, art, tourism and personnel exchange.

China is dedicated to expanding Sino-French economic, trade and investment cooperation, Wang said, hoping that France will continue to provide a fair and just environment for Chinese companies that are willing to invest and operate in France.

For his part, Le Drian said that France attaches great importance to French-Chinese relations and is willing to work together with China to plan high-level exchanges in the next stage, deepen practical cooperation in various sectors, strengthen personnel exchange, and maintain communication and coordination on important international and regional issues, such as climate change, the reform of international system and global governance in order to safeguard multilateralism.

He also said France is always open to Chinese companies’ investment and will not discriminate against specific companies, adding that Chinese companies are welcome in France, the French government is willing to offer more support.

The two foreign ministers have also reached broad consensus on the issues of Korean Peninsula, Iran’s nuclear, the Middle East, as well as on strengthening the role of the United Nations and the reform of the World Trade Organization.