Ladies and Gentlemen,

Good Evening!

Firstly, let me welcome you at the reception marking the 20th anniversary of the establishment of diplomat ties between China and Georgia.

20 years ago, China was one of the first countries to recognize Georgia’s independence and establish diplomatic ties. Throughout the past 20 years, both China and Georgia develop bilateral relations under the principles of mutual respect and mutual benefits and have made fruitful achievements. I will summarize the relations in 3 sentences: The bilateral political relations are more mature. The bilateral trade has achieved great success. The bilateral cultural exchange is more and more active.

In political area, both China and Georgia keep close coordination and cooperation, respecting mutual interests, supporting and cooperating with each other at international level. In trade area, the bilateral trade turnover increased more than 200 times from several million dollars in the first year of the establishment of diplomatic ties to more than 800 million dollars last year. Both countries are cooperating more closely with each other in the areas of technology, agriculture, infrastructure and energy. China puts every effort to support Georgia’s development, e.g. by training more than 600 Georgian personnel in different areas. In cultural and educational areas, the bilateral educational cooperation keeps dynamism. The Chinese government provides scholarships for Georgian students to study in China every year, has opened the first Confucius Institute in Georgia and promoted Peking University to establish the Georgian language faculty. The exchanges between art ensembles of our countries are becoming more and more frequent, further enhancing the friendship between Chinese and Georgian peoples and promoting the level of cooperation.

The reasons for the great achievements made by China and Georgia in developing bilateral relations are as the follows. Firstly, both governments attach great importance to the bilateral relations and are willing to develop such long-term friendly and mutual beneficial relationship under the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence. Both China and Georgia are developing countries, sharing the similar developing experience, facing the same developing tasks, respecting the developing way chosen by each other, and showing willingness to keep developing by means of peace and cooperation. Secondly, the Chinese and Georgian people have a long history of friendship. From the ancient Silk Road to introducing the tea from China (the famous Georgian “LiuCha (Liu Junzhou’s Tea)”, the traditional friendship between the two peoples was formed and still is promoted in the new era. Thirdly, it is because the development made by both countries creates necessary conditions for both sides to promote the bilateral cooperation. China has made great achievements since the introduction of reform and opening up policies and has accumulated some experience and strength, while Georgia has developed quite fast in recent years. The mutual complementarities enable both sides to learn from each other, thus, the bilateral cooperation conforms to the interests of both countries.

If we look into the future, China is willing to work together with Georgia to develop the bilateral relations, to deepen mutual political trust and to coordinate and cooperate with each other closely at international level. China will promote bilateral pragmatic cooperation and fully implement the newly signed tourism memorandum to make tourism a new highlight of the bilateral cooperation. China will continue to promote the bilateral cooperation in the areas of agriculture, energy, infrastructure and finance, and will encourage more Chinese enterprises to invest in Georgia. China welcomes and hopes more Georgian products will enter Chinese market. China will continue to promote educational and cultural exchanges with Georgia and encourage more local governments to establish direct contacts with Georgian counterparts.

Dear Friends.

The past 20 years is a short period of development, and is a new start point for us for planning the bilateral relations in the future as well. I believe that through the joint efforts by both sides, the friendly cooperation between China and Georgia will have a much wider range and a process will be much smoother. Both Chinese and Georgian peoples will get more pragmatic benefits from the bilateral cooperation.

Finally, please allow me to raise the glass of wine and make a toast for the prosperity of both China and Georgia! To the happiness of both Chinese and Georgian peoples! To the everlasting friendship between China and Georgia!

Thank you very much!