Zhao Leji, chairman of the National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee, holds talks with Johari bin Abdul, speaker of Malaysia's Dewan Rakyat, the lower house of parliament, at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, Sept 25, 2023. [Xinhua/Liu Weibing]

BEIJING -- Zhao Leji, chairman of the National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee, held talks with Johari bin Abdul, speaker of Malaysia's Dewan Rakyat, the lower house of parliament, in Beijing on Monday.

Zhao said China is willing to work with Malaysia to speed up the implementation of the important consensus reached by the leaders of the two countries, comprehensively upgrade the level of cooperation in various fields, and push for new achievements in the building of the China-Malaysia community with a shared future.

Noting that next year will mark the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Malaysia, Zhao said the two sides should focus on a new historical starting point, maintain strategic communication, and consolidate and deepen mutual political trust.

China supports Malaysia in choosing a development path in line with its national conditions, and hopes Malaysia will continue to give China firm support on issues involving China's core interests and major concerns, Zhao said.

He expressed the hope that the two countries will speed up the negotiation and signing of cooperation plans, promote the high-quality Belt and Road cooperation, and deepen cooperation in various fields such as trade and investment, new energy, digital economy and agriculture.

Zhao called on the two sides to enhance cultural exchanges and mutual learning, expand culture and tourism, education, sports, health and local cooperation, consolidate public support for friendly exchanges, strengthen China-ASEAN cooperation, and jointly build a peaceful, safe and secure, prosperous, beautiful and amicable home.

He said the NPC of China is willing to continue the tradition of friendly exchanges with the lower house of the Malaysian Parliament, enhance exchanges between legislative bodies at all levels, share experience on building rule of law and poverty reduction, and provide legal guarantees for bilateral cooperation in various fields.

China is willing to maintain good cooperation with Malaysia in multilateral mechanisms such as the Inter-Parliamentary Union and the Asian Parliamentary Assembly to jointly safeguard the interests of the two countries and developing countries, Zhao added.

Zhao stressed that China respects the path of modernization independently chosen by the people of all countries, opposes interference in other countries' internal affairs and ideological confrontation, and opposes "building walls and barriers", containment and suppression.

China is ready to join hands with Malaysia and other ASEAN countries to achieve modernization that suits their respective national conditions and enhances the well-being of their people, Zhao added.

Johari said Malaysia strongly supports the Belt and Road Initiative and hopes to strengthen bilateral cooperation in various fields such as economy, trade, agriculture, vocational education and people-to-people exchanges to achieve common prosperity.

The Malaysian Parliament is willing to deepen exchanges with the NPC of China and play an active role as a legislative body in promoting the building of the Malaysia-China community with a shared future, Johari added.

Zhao Leji, chairman of the National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee, holds talks with Johari bin Abdul, speaker of Malaysia's Dewan Rakyat, the lower house of parliament, at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, Sept 25, 2023. [Xinhua/Liu Weibing]