China and Greece, both with old civilizations, are trustworthy and helpful friends respecting and supporting each other on core interests and major concerns.

BEIJING, China (Xinhua) — Chinese President Xi Jinping’s upcoming visit to Greece and Brazil is expected to intensify China’s relations with the two countries and enhance BRICS cooperation, officials said here Thursday.

At the invitation of Greek President Prokopis Pavlopoulos, Xi will pay a state visit to Greece from 10 to 12 November, said Vice Foreign Minister Qin Gang.

This will be the first visit to the European country by a Chinese president after an interval of 11 years, which will exert a historic influence of China-Greece ties and push forward China-Europe relations and Belt and Road cooperation, Qin said.

He noted that China and Greece, both with old civilizations, are trustworthy and helpful friends respecting and supporting each other on core interests and major concerns.

Greece is among the first European Union (EU) countries to sign an intergovernmental cooperation document with China to jointly construct the Belt and Road, Qin said, adding that Greek prime ministers attended the first and second Belt and Road Forum on International Cooperation in Beijing.

The two sides have conducted fruitful cooperation on the principle of mutual benefit and win-win cooperation and witnessed increased bilateral trade and investment, Qin said.

“The Piraeus Port project, a flagship project for the Belt and Road cooperation, has made important contributions to the local economic and social development of Greece and played an important role in advancing connectivity in various regions around the globe,” said the vice foreign minister.

Speaking of people-to-people and cultural exchanges, Qin said peoples of the two countries respect each other and advocate openness and inclusiveness in their close interactions.

“Both China and Greece hold that different civilizations should respect each other and facilitate experience sharing, mutual learning and conversation among civilizations,” he said.

China and Greece are new friends of the “17 +1” cooperation. In April this year, Greece became a full member of the China-Central and Eastern European Countries Cooperation Mechanism, adding new opportunities to the development of this mechanism, which is also conducive to developing China-EU relations and China-EU connectivity, Qin said.

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis led a delegation to the ongoing second China International Import Expo (CIIE). Xi met with him, and the two leaders visited the Greek pavilion, Qin said.

According to Qin, in Greece, Xi is scheduled to hold talks respectively with Pavlopoulos and Mitsotakis, in a bid to consolidate political mutual trust and traditional friendship between the two countries, intensify pragmatic cooperation in trade, investment, infrastructure and other fields, uphold multilateralism and free trade and build an open world economy.