Chinese VP meets Finnish president

BEIJING - Chinese Vice-President Li Yuanchao on Tuesday met with Finnish President Sauli Niinisto in Beijing, pledging to deepen friendly cooperation with Finland.

Li said China and Finland have been good friends and partners since the two sides established diplomatic relations more than 60 years ago.

During Niinisto's visit, the top leaders of the two countries reached important consensus on building a future-oriented new-type cooperative partnership, which set the direction for bilateral cooperation in the future, according to Li.

He said China will continue to adhere to the path of peaceful development, and maintain friendly cooperation with countries around the world, including Finland.

Niinisto hailed the sound cooperative relations between the two nations.

Finland hopes the upgrading of the two countries' relations to a new-type cooperative partnership will bring better cooperation, said the president.     Niinisto is paying a state visit to China. He also attended the opening ceremony of the 2013 Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference on Sunday.