Chinese President Hu Jintao (L) talks to Denmark's Queen Margrethe II (R) upon his arrival in Copenhagen, Denmark, June 14, 2012/XINHUA
Denmark rolled down red carpet for President Hu, the first Chinese head of state who ever visited the North European country since the two countries established diplomatic ties 62 years ago.
Danish Queen Margrethe II and members of the royal family greeted Hu at the Kastrup International Airport. The Queen held a welcome ceremony for Hu and accompanied him to inspect the guard of honors.
Holding the presidency of the European Union, Denmark is working hard to coordinate and push forward EU countries’ effort to jointly address the sovereign debt crisis. According to Chinese officials, President Hu’s visit to Copenhagen will send out positive signals that China will firmly support Europe’s efforts to combat the debt crisis and advance its comprehensive strategic partnership with EU.
In a written statement released upon his arrival, Hu vowed to lift the ties between Beijing and Copenhagen to a new level.
Hu said that bilateral ties have come a long way and now enjoy sound and all-round growth in a wide range of areas. He expressed the readiness to take China-Denmark comprehensive strategic partnership to a new level.
Noting that China and Denmark established the comprehensive strategic partnership in 2008, Hu said the two countries have now seen frequent exchanges between the leaders, robust growth in economic cooperation and trade, fruitful cooperation in science, technology, environmental protection, new energy, culture and people-to-people exchanges and maintained good communication and coordination in international affairs.
The Chinese president said he will have in-depth discussions with Danish leaders on strengthening all-round cooperation between the two countries and other issues of shared interest.
“I also look forward to extensive contact with people from across the sectors of society in Denmark,” Hu said in the statement.
The Danish society embraced Hu’s visit with enthusiasm. Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt called the visit a “historic visit”.
Danish Trade and Investment Minister Pia Olsen Dyhr saidHu’s visit is a “breakthrough” in the Danish-Chinese relations as the two sides are expected to sign 10 cooperation agreements.
The Danish economy is very much dependent on exports as 54 percent of Danish gross domestic product (GDP) comes from exports and 700,000 Danes are employed in the export sector. China is now the sixth largest trading partner for Denmark and the top one in terms of trade of goods.
“I am looking forward to the years 2010-2015 that we can double this amount of exports to China,” said Olsen Dyhr.