Chinese President Xi Jinping declared on Tuesday that “Greece is a good friend to China” and called on visiting President Prokopis Pavlopoulos to assist in making the “Belt and Road” initiative a success.

Pavlopoulos is on a state visit to China and will attend the Conference on Dialogue of Asian Civilizations in Beijing as part of his official duties.

Xi spoke of the significance of Pavlopoulos’s visit to promote exchange and mutual learning between civilizations in Europe and Asia, as well as dialogue among all the civilizations in the world.

The Chinese president underscored the inclusiveness of Chinese civilization since ancient times, and said that there has never been any clash of civilizations, or any religious war, in China.

Pavlopoulos said the “clash of civilizations” argument drummed up by certain people in the international arena was a huge mistake.

He said different civilizations should respect each other, enhance mutual learning through dialogue and exchanges and draw upon each other’s strengths, which is the way to guarantee lasting peace of the world and the harmonious co-existence of humanity.

Pavlopoulos added that Greece is pursuing the best possible relations with China, “but always with full respect for international law as regards economic relations and trade, the European acquis and the European framework for the same relations.”

At the same time, he noted that “it is in the interests of both China and the West, and Europe, to work together in this direction because this economic cooperation will be the basis for a wider cooperation and co-creation at the international level, which we all need.”

Source: http://greece.greekreporter.com/category/greek-news/tourism/