Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping on Tuesday met with Swedish King Carl XVI Gustaf, complimenting the Swedish royal family for their contributions to promoting relations between Sweden and China.

Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping (R) meets with Swedish King Carl XVI Gustaf in Stockholm, Sweden, March 30, 2010. [Lan Hongguang/Xinhua]

At the beginning of the meeting, Xi conveyed Chinese President Hu Jintao's compliments and best regards to the Swedish king, for which the Swedish king expressed his gratitude.

Xi said that 60 years ago Sweden led many Western countries in taking the initiative to establish diplomatic ties with the new China, a move which the Chinese government and people always highly appreciate.

Thanks to concerted efforts by both sides in more than half a century, the Sino-Swedish relationship has reached a mature phase featured with frequent exchange of high-level visits, steady increase in mutual political trust, close trade and economic ties, mutually beneficial cooperation in science and technology, education, culture and environment protection, and active interactions at the local government level and between the two peoples, Xi said.

The Chinese government attaches great importance to develop friendly and cooperative ties with Sweden and highly values the active role Sweden plays in EU and international affairs, the Chinese vice president said.

He said that the Swedish royal family has devoted themselves to promoting Swedish-Chinese exchange and friendship and made great contributions to the development of relations between the two countries.

Xi said that he hopes the king and other members of the Swedish royal family will continue to make efforts to pass the Swedish- Chinese friendship from generation to generation.

The Swedish king said that he is pleased to see that the two countries have close political and economic links and engage in good cooperation in a wide range of areas including eco-city building and sustainable development.

The cooperation documents the two countries have signed will certainly help promote the development of bilateral ties, said the king. He said that he anticipates his planned visit to China and participation in Shanghai EXPO activities with a view of pushing forward the Swedish-Chinese relations.

After the meeting, the king gave a banquet in honor of the visiting Chinese vice president.

On Tuesday morning, Xi paid a visit to an eco-city in the Swedish capital city of Stockholm and the Confucius Institute of the Stockholm University.

Xi left here for home on Tuesday afternoon after winding up his four-day visit to Sweden, the last leg of his four-nation tour, which also took him to Russia, Belarus and Finland.