On Sept, 3rd, CPAFFC Vice President Li Jianping met with Congressman Filip De Winter, Chairman of Vlaams Belang (Flemish Interest Party) and Mr. Freddy Van Gaever, Honorary Congressman of Belgium and their wives.

Vice President Li Jianping welcomed Mr. Filip De Winter and his wife, and Mr. Freddy Van Gaever and his wife to visit China on behalf of CPAFFC President Li Xiaolin. Vice President Li appreciated that the congressmen as the leaders of the Belgian congress has made great contributions to promoting friendly exchanges and developing pragmatic cooperation between China and Belgium, and wished their visit to China a success. The friendly exchanges between China and Belgium have lasted for long. Especially in recent years, the economic cooperation is getting closer and non-governmental friendly contact is enriching constantly. The main tasks of the CPAFFC is to develop friendly exchanges with all countries in the world and promote pragmatic cooperation of regions. In September last year, the CPAFFC received Mr. Kris Peeters, First Minister of Flemish Region and the both sides had a very friendly communication.

Mr. Freddy Van Gaever thanked Vice President Li for CPAFFC’s invitation. He said, he has been to China for over 20 times. The speed of development of China is highly commended. He also spoke highly of the efforts that the CPAFFC has made in friendly exchanges between China and Belgium.

Mr. Filip De Winter introduced that the aim of their visit is to promote to establish free trade zone in Antwerp, the second largest harbor in Belgium. He also mentioned P. Ferdinand Verbiest, the well-known Belgian astronomer has forged deep friendship with China long time ago. He suggested Izegem, his hometown, to establish friendly relation with the counter cities or regions in China.

Vice President Li Jianping said, China and Belgium now have 26 pairs of friendship cities. How to promote those cities to develop more active cooperation will be CPAFFC’s future working direction. For the issue of Izegem, considering that the astronomical instruments manufactured with P. Ferdinand Verbiest’s supervision now are preserved in Ancient Beijing Observatory, Vice President Li Jianping suggested Izegem to establish friendly relation with Dongcheng District of Beijing, the CPAFFC would provide this issue with assistance.

The both sides also had in-depth discussions on traffic, environment, city construction and other issues.