French President Jacques Chirac has said that forging a France-China partnership is "at the heart of France's foreign affairs," as "everybody in his country knows that the world's future lies greatly with China."

"China is also clear that it can always find in France its partner, who is independent and who is willing to work together with China in building a balanced world," said Chirac, in a written interview with Xinhua on Monday.

The France-China partnership represents a spirit of "collective responsibility" in the framework of a "global strategic partnership," said the French president, who is scheduled to begin a four-day state visit to China on Oct. 25.

And the two countries are capable of promoting peace and progress through a comprehensive strategic France-China partnership, added Chirac.

"Never in the long history of France-China relations have our communications been so close, our mutual trust so much deepened and high-level contacts so frequent," said Chirac.

In the interview, Chirac highly praised what China had achieved.

China's success was, first of all, represented by its economic rise, and then by its scientific and technological breakthroughs, said Chirac, adding that China had entered into such high-tech areas as aerospace and telecommunications, which was of great significance to the future.

On EU-China relations, Chirac said: "In the same spirit, it is our mission to reinforce the EU-China relationship, because there are no rivalries but common interests between us."

He said that it was quite encouraging that the EU and China had made the important step forward of initiating negotiations over a new EU-China partnership accord at the 9th EU-China summit in Helsinki, Finland, in September.

On economic and trade relations between the two countries, Chirac said bilateral trade, which was developing with a strong momentum, had almost doubled since 2000.

French exports to China had increased by 30 percent in the first half of 2006, he added.

France would like to build with China "a genuine industrial partnership," and was looking forward to cooperating with China in such areas as aeronautics, nuclear energy, railway transportation, telecommunications and financial services, Chirac said .

"France is ready to provide necessary technologies that China may need in its development," he said.

"I have confidence in China. As an ancient country, China's experiences will help it establish and realize the concept of harmonious development. And I am sure China will shoulder its long-term responsibilities in the world arena," Chirac said.

Source: Xinhua