PRAGUE, Dec. 7 (Xinhuanet) -- At the invitation of Czech Prime Minister Jiri Paroubek, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao is due to pay an official visit to the Czech Republic on Dec. 8-9.

    It will be the first visit by a Chinese premier to the republic since its independence in 1993. The visit is expected to put forward bilateral cooperation in various fields and push bilateral relations to a new high.

    Though geographically far apart, China and the Czech Republic have a well-established friendship.

    The former Czechoslovakia, from which the Czech Republic got independent, was one of the first countries to recognize and establish diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China. China was also one of the first countries to recognize the Czech Republic and set up diplomatic ties with it.

    Since the Czech Republic became an independent sovereign state in 1993, the two countries have maintained a frequent exchange of high-level visits.

    In 1994, Czech Prime Minister Vaclav Klaus visited China, laying the foundation for the smooth development of bilateral relations.

    In 1999, Czech Prime Minister Milos Zeman paid a visit to China, which opened up new prospects for bilateral economic and trade relations.

    In April 2004, Klaus, then president of the Czech Republic, visited China, marking the first visit to China by the country's head of state.

    So far this year, several senior Czech officials have visited China in succession as bilateral relations enjoy a good momentum of development.

    In June, Prime Minister Paroubek included China in his first Asian tour shortly after taking office. During the visit, he reached broad consensus with Chinese leaders on issues ranging from expanding bilateral cooperation in trade, investment and tourism, to boosting cultural and sports exchanges.

    Since 2000, Chinese officials such as then Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan, State Councilor Wang Zhongyu and Wu Yi have successively visited the Czech Republic.

    As a result of joint efforts, the mutual trust between the two countries has been continuously deepened. Leaders from both sides agree that the two countries have neither outstanding problems nor fundamental conflicts of interests, and the development of friendly bilateral cooperation serves the aspirations and the immediate interests of both peoples.

    China attaches great importance to developing relations with the Czech Republic, respects the Czech people's choice of social system and path of development, and considers the republic as an important cooperative partner in central and eastern Europe.

    For their part, the Czech leaders have repeatedly emphasized that China is one of the most important countries in the world, and also the Czech Republic's major partner in Asia.

    They have stressed their adherence to the one-China policy, their recognition of Taiwan and Tibet as inseparable parts of the Chinese territory and their noninterference in China's internal affairs.

    In recent years, bilateral economic and trade relations have undergone encouraging development, with the two-way trade volume growing rapidly and spheres of bilateral cooperation seeing continuous expansion.

    According to statistics from the Chinese customs, the trade volume between the two countries stood at 437 million US dollars in 2000, 1.58 billion dollars in 2003, and nearly 1.8 billion dollars in 2004.

    Meanwhile, bilateral economic cooperation has also made great progress. Last April, Czech car manufacturer Skoda Auto signed a deal with Shanghai Volkswagen to start producing its Octavia model in China in 2007.

    Since the Czech Republic joined the European Union in May 2004, many big Chinese enterprises have started to actively explore the Czech market, and at the same time, the large potential of the Chinese market has also attracted Czech businesses.

    So far, the two countries have set up cooperative relations in various fields including electric power, environmental protection and mechanical equipment. Bilateral cooperation and exchanges in the fields of culture, education and science and technology have also been strengthened and proved to be fruitful.

    The Chinese premier's upcoming visit to Prague is a big event in the history of bilateral ties. Observers believe that jointly nurtured by both sides, the Sino-Czech relations will surely witness greater development. Enditem