Chinese State Councilor Dai Bingguo said on Thursday that he has reiterated China's good neighborly policy toward Mongolia in his talks with Mongolian leaders.

During an interview with Mongolian media, Dai said it is entirely groundless to doubt that China would one day change its good neighborly policy towards Mongolia.

He reiterated that China would as always respect Mongolia's independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity and respect Mongolian people's choices of political systems and the path of development.

China would never do anything that hurts Mongolia, or aims at regime change and interference in other country's domestic affairs, Dai said, adding that China and Mongolia would always be good neighbors, friends and partners.

Mongolian leaders also stressed in the talks that they would unswervingly pursue a good neighborly policy toward China and are willing to jointly maintain and develop bilateral relations, Dai said.

Dai reviewed the development of relations between China and Mongolia, noting that the two neighbors, linked with a deep historical origin and cultural tradition, should only further their good relations as they have done in the past, which serves the fundamental long-term interests of the two countries and peoples.

Dai also said the two nations have been enjoying satisfactory trade cooperation and people-to-people exchanges.

With the global financial crisis still lingering over, bilateral trade reached $6.4 billion last year, a 60-percent increase, he said, adding that Mongolia has also maintained a 16 percent to 17 percent economic growth rate, which was quite fast and rare in the world.

The Chinese state councilor urged the two countries not to miss historic opportunities, which if lost, would be gone for good.

The two sides need to work together to promote economic and trade development, as well as pragmatic cooperation, and to remove some obstacles to create the best possible conditions, he added.

He said there is still a huge potential and broad prospect for China-Mongolia trade cooperation, which will benefit the peoples of the two countries.

It is possible that various problems may emerge over the course of development, said Dai, adding that "no matter what the problems would be, we shall resolve them."

He also warned that inaction and overcaution may be the biggest problems of all, which would lead to the loss of all opportunities.

(Xinhua News Agency August 23, 2012)