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China’s ambassador to ASEAN presents credentials

China’s first ambassador to ASEAN, Yang Xiuping, presented her credentials to ASEAN Secretary General Surin Pitsuwan at the ASEAN Secretariat’s headquarters in the capital city of Indonesia on August 6.
China’s first ambassador to ASEAN, Yang Xiuping, presented hercredentials to ASEAN Secretary General Surin Pitsuwan at the ASEANSecretariat’s headquarters in the capital city of Indonesia on August 6.

During talks following the credentialspresentation, Surin and Yang pledged to work closely to strengthen thestrategic partnership relations between the Southeast Asian bloc andChina.

Yang, who previously severed asambassador to Sri Lanka and Maldives, expressed her honour to assumethe post of China’s first resident ambassador to ASEAN andemphasised that her diplomatic mission will work to fortify ASEAN-Chinastrategic partnership.

“The diplomatic mission willserve as a bridge of communication, cooperation, a messenger offriendship, bringing ASEAN – China strategic partnership to a newheight”, said Yang.

On his part, Surin said that ASEAN encourages China to pour more investments into ASEAN.

Both the Secretary-General and the ambassador showed optimism on thepossibility of raising the two-way trade to over 500 billion USD in2015.

According to statistics from the ASEANSecretariat, China remains the biggest trade partner of ASEAN. In2011, bilateral trade turnover stood at 280.4 billion USD and China’s direct investment in ASEAN reached 5.9 billion USD.-VNA
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