Philippine president meets PLA deputy chief of general staff

Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo Monday met at the presidential palace the visiting deputy chief of the General Staff of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) of China Xiong Guangkai, who was here for attending the first dialogue on defense and security between China and the Philippines.

Xiong conveyed regards from Chinese President Hu Jintao to Arroyo. Arroyo also expressed her good wishes for President Hu and highly evaluated the successful visit to the Philippines by the Chinese President Hu Jintao in late April.

Arroyo expressed satisfaction over the positive results of defense and security cooperation between the Philippines and China, and stressed that it is in the mutual interests of the two countries to develop Filipino-Chinese friendly relations.

Xiong highly evaluated the positive contributions made by Arroyo to developing relations between China and the Philippines as well as between the two armed forces. He expressed his hope for further developing the relations between the PLA and the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), which is aimed at promoting the strategic cooperative relations between the two countries for the purpose of peace and development.

During his visit here, Xiong met with the Philippine National Security Advisor Norberto Gonzales, Defense Secretary Avelino J. Cruz and AFP chief of staff Efren Abu.

On Monday, Xiong also held the first Sino-Philippine dialogue on defense and security with Philippine Undersecretary of Defense Antonio Santos.

Source: Xinhua