Mongolian, New Zealand premiers begin China visit

By Riyaz ul Khaliq

ISTANBUL (AA) – Prime ministers of Mongolia and New Zealand on Monday began official trips to China.

Luvsannamsrai Oyun-Erdene, the Mongolian prime minister, reached Beijing at the invitation of his Chinese counterpart Li Qiang.

He is on a six-day trip to China until July 1 where he will also attend the 14th Annual Meeting of the New Champions, also known as the Summer Davos Forum, Chinese state-run Xinhua News reported.

New Zealand Prime Minister Chris Hipkins also arrived in Beijing on Monday and is expected to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping.

“One of the things that’s really important about the New Zealand-China relationship is that we continue to identify those areas where we have mutual interests, where we can work together, where we can co-operate … because there are a lot of them,” Hipkins told reporters after arriving in the Chinese capital.

“And that we have a relationship that’s strong enough that where we do disagree, we can share that openly with each other,” said Hipkins, according to Radio New Zealand.

Describing the New Zealand-China relationship as “very important,” Hipkins said: “We’ll also be aiming to continue to strengthen the government-to-government relationship.”

On areas of “disagreement,” the New Zealand prime minister added: “They’re long-standing. Our position on a range of issues around human rights has not changed, our position on geopolitical issues has not changed. Of course, I'm happy, once we've had those meetings, I'm sure we can go into more detail about what was discussed but they won't come as a surprise to New Zealanders.”

Leading a delegation of 29 people, including those from businesses, Hipkins, besides Beijing, is expected to visit Tianjin and Shanghai for several events before he returns home Friday.