China-Maldives Free Trade Agreement Is Mutually Beneficial: Chinese Spokesperson

A Chinese foreign ministry's spokesperson Tuesday said the China-Maldives Free Trade Agreement was mutually beneficial and stressed that its early implementation would benefit both the countries.

BEIJING, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 20th Nov, 2018 ) :A Chinese foreign ministry's spokesperson Tuesday said the China-Maldives Free Trade Agreement was mutually beneficial and stressed that its early implementation would benefit both the countries.

"The China-Maldives Free Trade Agreement is mutually beneficial and has been signed after equal and friendly consultations between the two sides. We believe that the Maldivian government will make the right choice," Geng Shuang said during his regular briefing held here.

He informed that President Xi Jinping's Special Envoy, Minister of Culture and Tourism, Yu Shugang had recently attended the oath-taking ceremony of President Ibrahim Salih and later held a meeting with him.

"During the meeting, President Salih said the new government attaches importance to and is committed to developing relations with China and is willing to deepen pragmatic cooperation and enrich the relationship between the two countries," he added.

The spokesperson said the Maldivian president also said China was the country that provided the most economic and development assistance to the Maldives.

He said the completion of the China-Maldives Friendship Bridge had greatly improved the travel conditions of the people in the region, and the Maldivian side had really felt the cooperation between the two countries.

"The benefits of the bridge welcomes more Chinese companies to invest in the Maldives," he said and added that these evaluations truly reflected the significance of pragmatic cooperation between China and Maldives.

China's willingness to deepen pragmatic cooperation with the Maldives and maintain a positive and good development momentum in bilateral relations was firm and clear, he concluded.