Zhao Kezhi, Party secretary and governor of Southwest China's Guizhou province, met Thursday with former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder who is leading a German delegation in Guiyang, the provincial capital, for an eco-forum.

Zhao Kezhi extended his welcome to the delegation as well as respect for their efforts in the development of China-Germany relations.

This year marks the 40th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between the People's Republic of China and Germany. Zhao spoke highly of the contributions Schroeder had made to the bilateral relations during his tenure as the chancellor by pursuing friendly policies towards China, especially in such fields as politics, economy, science and technology, and culture.

As a high-level and long-term platform aimed at promoting the construction of ecological civilization, dealing with climate changes, and facilitating green development, the Eco-forum global, Guiyang is playing an increasingly important role and is having a growing influence in the whole world.

Zhao said that Schroeder's participation in the forum showed his committment in enhancing green development.

Schroeder expressed his congratulations on the success of the forum and the achievements Guizhou has made in the past several years, saying that the forum fully reflected the determination of the Chinese governments at all levels to pay more attention to environmental protection and pollution control, sustainable development, and the construction of ecological civilization.

He said he would make further efforts to enhance exchanges and cooperation between Germany and Guizhou.

The relations between China and Germany were sure to become more mature and better, said Schroeder. He said that Merkel, the incumbent German chancellor, was expected to visit China in August this year, which showed that maintaining a friendly relation was a consensus for successive governments in Germany.