A reception marking the 15th anniversary of the establishment of
diplomatic relations between China and Israel was held on Wednesday
evening in Herzliya, an Israeli coastal city.
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"I think now China has made such an impressive progress in the
economic domain," Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Shimon Peres told
Xinhua, adding that he also appreciated China's effort to try to
combine such advancement with its traditional values.
Speaking at the reception, Peres said that he was greatly
surprised by the accomplishment made by the 1.3 billion Chinese
people "from the depth of poverty to become the second largest
economy in our time" with an unbelievable growth rate of 8 to 9
percent per year.
Peres also praised China's preparation for the 2008 Olympic
Games, which will be hosted in Beijing, and expressed his
confidence in its success.
Addressing over two hundred Israeli officials, representatives
and friends at the reception, Mr. Chen Yonglong, Chinese Ambassador
to Israel, recalled the rapid development of Israel-China bilateral
relations during the past 15 years and the increasing cooperation
between two countries in various fields such as trade, agriculture,
culture, science and technology and education etc.
"Fifteen years ago, our trade volume was relatively small. Now
China has become Israel's third largest trade partner, ranking
behind the United States and Germany only", Chen said.
From Jan. 9 to 11, Israeli Prime
MinisterEhud Olmert paid an official visit to China,
where he met with Chinese President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao. The two sides discussed ways to
further deepen ties with each other and exchanged views on
solutions to Israel-Palestinian conflict.
Diplomatic relations between Israel and China were formally
established on 24 January 1992. From then on, relations rapidly
developed in many areas. Currently, cooperation between the two
countries is flourishing on many different levels such as science,
agriculture, culture and of course economics and commerce.
According to Israeli official statistics, the level of Israel-
China mutual trade grew rapidly, from US$54 million in 1992 to
US$3.39 billion? in 2006. At the beginning of the
relationship, trade was primarily focused on the fields of
agriculture, chemicals and water. Today Israel-China commerce also
encompasses the fields of life sciences, hi-tech and venture
capital.
(Xinhua News Agency January 25, 2007)