A grand reception was held in the Chinese embassy in Vienna to mark the 35th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Austria on Friday.

Hans Winkler, state secretary of the Austrian Foreign Ministry, was among more than 400 guests present at the reception hosted by Ambassador Lu Yonghua.

In his opening speech, Lu highly praised the China-Austria relations in all fields as a good example of cooperation between countries with different social systems.

Over the past 35 years, he said, with the efforts of both sides, diplomatic and economic cooperation between the two countries had been constantly expanded.

"Trade volume between the two countries has been growing, and reached 2.49 billion euros (3.26 billion U.S. dollars) in 2005. China has been the biggest trade partner of Austria in Asia," he added.

Winkler highly praised the contribution of late Chinese premier Zhou Enlai and other Chinese leaders of the first generation involved in the development of China-Austria relations.

He also acclaimed the economic achievements made by the Chinese after the implementation of its reform and opening up since the late 1970s, and gave his assurance that the Austrian government would consistently promote friendly cooperation with China.

Source: Xinhua