Sweden was the first western country who established diplomatic relations with New China. Over the past 56 years, bilateral relations have been very smooth. There are many common interests between the two countries and great mutual complementary aspects between the two sides in economic and technical cooperation. Over the past year, Sweden got a new center right government led by Alliance parties. Will this change have any impact on Sino-Swedish relations? People's Daily Online correspondent in Stockholm Xuefei Chen interviews Mr. Lu Fengding, Chinese Ambassador to Sweden on Sino-Swedish relations.

Mr. Lu Fengding (R), Chinese Ambassador to Sweden and People's Daily Online correspondent Xuefei Chen

2006, an outstanding year for Sino-Swedish relations

Reporter: How do you comment Sino-Swedish relations in 2006?

Ambassador Lu: 2006 marks an outstanding year since the late 1980s. First of all, political trust between the two countries substantially improved with high level visits. Swedish King Carl Gustaf XVI and Queen Silvia's visit to China was the first meeting between heads of states of the two countries since 26 years ago. It was also the highest level visit over the past 10 years.

Crown Princess Victoria, Prince Philip and their young sister Princess Madelaine have all visited China this year. It shows that Sweden has great interest in China and pays great attention to China's development. Chinese vice chairmen of the National People's Congress Li Tieying and Lu Yongxiang, Minister of Finance Jin Renqing and Minister of Commerce Bo Xilai and governors from Anhui and Henan provinces have all visited Sweden. The mutual consultation and cooperation in many important international issues have also been improved. Through high level visits and exchange, mutual understanding is improved. In particular, Swedish media's positive reports on China has substantially increased, political relations between the two sides have been further improved.

Second, the economic and trade cooperation have been further expanded. China continues to be the largest trade partner of Sweden in Asia. Trade volume reached 6.1 billion US dollars from January to November this year, 16.6% more than last year. Mutual investment also increased rapidly. China and Sweden also signed a protocol on economic, industrial and technical cooperation. Many famous Swedish multinational companies such as ABB, VOLVO, IKEA, SKF successfully settled in China many years ago. Swedish investment in China reached 2 billion US dollars last year. Currently in every 4 days, there is a Swedish company entering China. Meanwhile, Chinese companies such as China Metals and Minerals Import & Export Co. Ltd, TZE and Huawei have already entered Sweden. And some other Chinese companies are actively planning to do so. 

Third, Full development has also been seen in culture, education and tourism sectors. With support from the government and industrial and commercial sectors, Swedish ship Gothenburg has successfully visited China, realizing its historical sailing back to China. This has aroused great attention from Sweden and warmly welcomed by the Chinese people. The two sides have signed a letter of intent on cultural cooperation between 2006 and 2008 and an agreement on mutual recognition of certificates and degrees in the two countries. This has created a good condition for strengthening cultural and educational cooperation between China and Sweden.

I think the most important event in bilateral relations was the Swedish King's visit to China in July. In particular, the visit was arranged upon the time Gothenburg ship arrived in Guangzhou, which was of great historic and realistic significance. Chinese President Hu Jintao held a cordial meeting with the Swedish King Gustaf and former Foreign Minister Jan Eliasson was also in Beijing to meet his Chinese counterpart. They exchanged views on important international and bilateral issues. The two sides also held economic and trade commission meetings and held talks on economic and trade cooperation. This event has been widely reported by the media and has played a very positive role in improving bilateral understanding and smooth development of bilateral relations. So the King's visit will be remembered as an important event in the history of bilateral relations between China and Sweden.

Sino-Swedish relation is mature

Reporter: Do you think the change of Swedish government will affect bilateral relations?

Ambassador Lu: Since the establishment of diplomatic relations 56 years ago, bilateral relations between China and Sweden has been very smooth and steady. With efforts from both sides, the two countries have established a full scale cooperative relations based on understanding, friendliness and down to earth attitude. In history, we didn't have any twists and turns or any fundamental conflict of interests, on the contrary, we have a lot of common interests such as facing the common responsibility of maintaining world peace, promoting human development and developing our own economy and improving people's living standards. Strengthening friendly and cooperative relations between China and Sweden is not only conducive to bilateral relations, but also to Europe, Asia and even the whole world. In particular, China and Sweden have great mutually complementary advantages to each other in economic and social development. This has provided great potential for mutually beneficial cooperation. Currently both political exchange and economic cooperation scale have reached the best level in history. But we still have potential to further improve political trust through further contacts and expand our cooperation so that we can become the model of equal cooperation between countries with different systems.

During September's election, Alliance won and established a new government. The change of government is Swedish internal affairs, and we should fully respect it. But I think such change will not and should not bring major impact on Sweden's foreign policy and its policy on China because this was the choice of the people and in the interest of the two countries. To strengthen cooperation with China has been the consensus reached among Swedish various parties long time ago. Thus, Sino-Swedish relations should continue to develop. In fact, the new Prime Minister Frederik Reinfeldt has expressed in many occasions that Sweden will continue to develop friendly and cooperative relations with China. Currently the two sides are actively exploring and consulting on effective methods of strengthening bilateral cooperation and exchanges. This also reflects the maturity of Sino-Swedish relations.

Great prospects for bilateral cooperation

Reporter: In which areas do you think the two countries can further cooperate in the future?

Ambassador Lu: I think in the future, the two sides should continue their good cooperative relations in political, trade, investment, education, culture and science and technology fields, improve efficiency and expand the cooperation scale.

In the political field, both sides should continue the high level mutual visits and increase exchanges at various levels so that we can improve our communications and mutual trust and improve our political atmosphere. Meanwhile, we'll continue to consult with each other on important international issues, exchange views and promote our cooperation.

In economic development, we should explore new cooperative ways. Sweden has accumulated rich experiences in promoting sustainable growth, scientific research, social equity and establishing social security system. Sweden also has international competitiveness in telecommunication, machine manufacturing, pharmaceutical industries and financial areas. Even in protecting large companies' competition environment, there is something we can learn from Sweden. Meanwhile, China's advantages are the great market potential, rapid economic development, plenty of opportunities, competitive labor forces and great enthusiasm in absorbing investment and technology from Sweden.

Based on the development in recent years, I think we should consolidate trade. Bilateral trade should be further expanded so that Sweden will resume its status of the largest trade partner of China in northern Europe, currently Finland is the largest, and try to expand our trade volume from 6 billion to 10 billion US dollars. In my opinion, Sweden should continue to support trade liberalization and promote Sino-Swedish and even Sino-European trade development. We should encourage companies from both countries to invest in the other side and in particular help small and medium sized enterprises to invest in China and Chinese enterprises invest in Sweden. We should try to increase Swedish investment in China to surpass 3 billion dollars while Chinese investment in Sweden also have a breakthrough.

Thirdly, to strengthen scientific and technological cooperation. We will put new materials, biotechnology, information technology and energy cooperation on the priority. The two sides will continue to consolidate environmental and sustainable development cooperation.

In education and cultural fields, there are also broad prospects for further cooperation. Many Swedish universities have established good relations with Chinese universities, so there will be more students coming to Sweden or Swedish students to China. I think there is great potential for further cooperation, the most important thing is that we should grasp such historic opportunities.

Reporter: We know that many large companies in Sweden have settled in China, but many small companies also like to find ways to develop in China, how should they do?

Ambassador Lu: There are many channels for them to establish contacts. There are also many opportunities in China, but the key is to find the right partner or the right project. There is an association for small and medium sized companies in China and in Sweden there is a relevant organization too. Commercial sectors of the embassies in both countries are also providing help for companies and the coming of large companies to China has also brought in a lot of small companies there. So far, there have been about 800 Swedish companies in China. And their profits have finally come back to Sweden.

Seeking consensus and common progress while keeping differences

Reporter: Is there any obstacle for bilateral cooperation?

Ambassador Lu: The word 'obstacle' in international relations is very abstract, although we often encounter such words. I think we should avoid using it here. Due to different cultural traditions, political systems and development models, the two countries have some different views on certain issues in certain times. This is inevitable and quite understandable. But today as human civilization has developed, no matter how different our views are and what reasons cause them, it all can be treated as a reason for us to strengthen exchange and cooperation, but not as an obstacle. If we have different views in ideology, social systems and development model, we can only take an attitude of respecting each other, learning from each other and being tolerant while improving mutual understanding through friendly consultation and seeking consensus and keeping differences so that we can achieve common progress.

In the later half of the last century, human rights issue became a focus for some countries to accuse the others. This caused challenges for normal development of international relations, and it also brought about some impact on Sino-Swedish relations. Chinese government and people have always valued the friendship between China and Sweden and paid great attention to Sino-Swedish relations and would like to make joint efforts with the Swedish side to strengthen dialogue and deepen our understanding so that our relations will be healthily developed on the basis of equality and mutual benefit.

Reporter: Do you think Chinese people understand Sweden better than Swedish people understand China, or vice versa?

Ambassador Lu: I think both Chinese and Swedish people are eager to understand each other. They have shown great interest in China and Chinese are also interested in Sweden. But if we say misunderstanding, I think Swedish have greater misunderstanding on China's situation than Chinese misunderstanding of Sweden. But I can understand that because Sweden hasn't experienced so many difficulties or problems as China. Their misunderstanding is based on their humanitarian point of view, thus it is also understandable. But they didn't understand the complexity of the Chinese situation in many circumstances including the Tibet and human rights issues.

As Chinese Ambassador, I am very optimistic about Sino-Swedish cooperative relations. Judging from the overall situation, there is no obstacle in bilateral relations. I believe, as long as both sides continue to deal with our relations with a down-to-earth attitude, Sino-Swedish relations will be more coordinated, steady, mature and fruitful. We say in the New Year, we're going to make new progress.