Serbia, Prime Minister Ana Brnabic

China stands ready to push forward its comprehensive strategic partnership with Serbia to a new stage and build a closer community of interests, President Xi Jinping said when meeting with Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabic.

Xi asked Brnabic to extend his sincere greetings and good wishes to Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, saying that sending a delegation led by Brnabic to attend the expo fully shows that Serbia values its cooperation with China.

China is willing to continuously deepen mutual trust and its traditional friendship with Serbia and jointly build the Belt and Road, he said.

Xi underlined the importance of the two countries working on major cooperative projects in such areas as production capacity and infrastructure construction.

He urged the two sides to make joint efforts in landmark projects such as the Smederevo steel mill and the Hungary-Serbia railway and continue to carry out cooperation in areas including 5G telecommunication networks.

China and Serbia should enhance cooperation in several areas and jointly uphold the basic rules governing international relations as well as multilateralism, Xi said.

Brnabic, for her part, said the bilateral relationship is at its best period in history and big projects such as the Smederevo steel mill have greatly boosted Serbia's economic development.

The Serbian people have increasingly felt the benefits brought by Serbia-China cooperation, she said.

China sent out a strong signal of promoting economic globalization and trade liberalization by holding the expo, and Serbia will continue to actively participate in the event, she added.