Chinese State Councilor Liu Yandong applauded the development of China-South Korea ties during a meeting Sunday with outgoing President Lee Myung Bak.

Liu, a special envoy of President Hu Jintao and Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, spoke highly of Lee's important contributions to developing China-South Korea cooperation and communications in various fields.

China is pleased to see that the two countries have achieved fruitful results in cooperation in the areas of politics, economics and trade, and culture, and have maintained close communications and coordination on global and regional issues in the past five years, Liu said.

It is in the basic interests of both the Chinese and South Korean peoples for the two sides to deepen thier good neighborliness and pragmatic cooperation, Liu added.

China is willing to join hands with South Korea to safeguard and develop their strategic cooperative partnership and lift their bilateral ties to a new high, she said.

China is also willing to cooperate with South Korea to create a regional atmosphere of peace, stability, equality, mutual trust, cooperation and win-win results, Liu said.

For his part, the South Korea president said his country's strategic cooperative partnership with China has scored great development. He said he was confident that the two countries would expand cooperation in all areas and make new achievements.

(Xinhua News Agency February 24, 2013)