Ｆｉｒｓｔ Ｕｋｒａｉｎｉａｎ Ｐｒｅｓｉｄｅｎｔ Ｌｅｏｎｉｄ Ｋｒａｖｃｈｕｋ ａｎｄ ｈｉｓ Ｐａｒｔｙ ｉｎ Ｃｈｉｎａ

At the invitation of the CPAFFC， the first Ukrainian President Leonid Kravchuk led a 9-member delegation of the Ukraine-China Society (UCS) visited China from January 23 to 29， 2007. Besides Beijing the delegation visited Shanghai and Suzhou.

Kravchuk is friendly towards China and now serves as honorary president of the UCS which is a Ukrainian nongovernmental friendship-with-China organization and CPAFFC’s main cooperative partner in Ukraine. Members of the delegation included former Ukrainian foreign minister Anatoly Maximovich Zlenko and former Ukrainian ambassador to China Mykhailo B. Reznik.

January 4， 2007 marks the 15th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Ukraine. President Hu Jintao and Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko sent messages of congratulations to each other. Leonid Kravchuk and his party attended the celebration held by the CPAFFC. Before the celebration， Uyunqimg， vice chairperson of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress， met with the delegation. Qian Qichen， former vice premier and foreign minister， Chen Haosu， CPAFFC president， and Dai Bingguo， vice foreign minister， separately met with and entertained the delegation. Kravchuk and his party also attended the opening ceremony of the China-Ukraine Economic and Trade Talks， visited the Beijing Economic and Technological Development Zone and were interviewed by the correspondent of the Xinhua News Agency.

When meeting with Kravchuk， the Chinese leaders all spoke highly of the work he had done for years for the development of Ukraine-China relations and praised him as the founder of China-Ukraine friendship. As the first Ukrainian president， his visit to China on the occasion of the 15th anniversary of China-Ukraine diplomatic relations has a special significance. In the past 15 years since the establishment of diplomatic relations， China-Ukraine relations have developed steadily with frequent high-level visits， further deepening mutual political trust， close cooperation in international affairs and rapid development of economic and trade ties. CPAFFC President Chen Haosu said， the CPAFFC is willing to further strengthen its contacts with the Ukrainian friendship organizations， promote non-governmental cooperation in various fields and make greater contributions to the development of traditional friendship between the two countries.

During the meeting， Kravchuk expressed his thanks to the CPAFFC for inviting him to visit China on the occasion of the 15th anniversary of diplomatic ties between the two countries. He said， since his last visit to China more then ten years ago， great changes have taken place in China. This time he visited China in the capacity of honorary president of the UCS， hoping to further develop Ukraine-China relations， particularly economic and trade cooperation. Grigori Surkis， president of the UCS and entrepreneur， and other leading officials of the UCS also expressed their hope to strengthen exchanges with Chinese friendship organizations.

Zhou Muyao， vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the Shanghai Municipal People’s Congress and president of the Shanghai Municipal People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries， met with and entertained the delegation. The delegation was invited to pay a visit to the Administrative Committee of the Pudong Development Area for they wanted to know about the Area. Kravchuk and Zlenko expressed great interest in the mode of developing economy by setting up development zones. They got detailed information about the Pudong Development Area’s taxation policy， infrastructural construction， investment， administrative division， etc. Kravchuk said， China’s practice of establishing development zones is pioneering work which has played a great role in China’s rapid economic growth. Ukraine can learn from it.

Also accompanying Kravchuk on his visit to China were 21 representatives of Ukrainian business circles. On January 24， the China-Ukraine Economic and Trade Talks organized by the CPAFFC were held in Beijing， with more than 60 Chinese enterprise representatives attending. The entrepreneurs of the two sides at the talks reached several letters of intent on cooperation. During the delegation’s stay in Shanghai， the Shanghai Small and Medium-Sized Enterprise Association invited over 40 Chinese enterprise representatives to have exchanges with their Ukrainian counterparts.

On January 25， CPAFFC President Chen Haosu and UCS First Vice President Yevhen Rashutin signed the programme of cooperation between the two organizations for 2007-2008. According to the programme， the two sides agreed to further develop people-to-people friendly contacts through various forms of exchanges.