Chinese president meets Indonesian counterpart on ties

Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Indonesian counterpart Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono met here Wednesday on bilateral ties, relations between China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and other major regional and international issues. Xi arrived here earlier in the day for a state visit to Indonesia, the first leg of his maiden trip to Southeast Asia since he assumed presidency in March. After their talks, the two countries will issue a major political document, while the two leaders will witness the signing of a series of cooperative deals between governmental departments and enterprises of the two countries. The two leaders will also hold a joint press conference. Cooperation between the two countries has been steadily enhanced since the establishment of the China-Indonesia strategic partnership in 2005. With bilateral trade reaching 66.22 billion U.S. dollars last year, four times that of 2005, China has become Indonesia's second biggest trade partner. Bilateral trade in the first half of 2013 hit 33.84 billion dollars, up 4.6 percent from the same period of last year. For three successive years, Indonesia has been China's largest market for project contracting in Southeast Asia. The two countries have also made remarkable progress in cooperation in such fields as science and technology, education, culture, people-to-people exchanges, defense, maritime affairs and aerospace. The Chinese president will also visit Malaysia and later return to Indonesia for the 21st informal economic leaders' meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) in the resort island of Bali from Oct. 7 to Oct. 8.