Charlie O'Connor (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)
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Question 269: To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs his endeavours to continue the improvement of relations with China; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [39052/05]

Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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The Government places considerable importance on the development of our relations with China. Since the launch of the Asia strategy in 1999, following the success of the first official visit by the Taoiseach to China in 1998, our links and exchanges with China have developed greatly. Educational, cultural and interpersonal links have all grown. Chinese students have been welcomed to Ireland to further their studies. Trade has increased significantly and the regular high level visits in both directions clearly demonstrate the strengthening of relations.

President McAleese undertook a State visit to China in October 2003 and met, among others, President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao. The Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao visited Ireland in May 2004. The Taoiseach held a bilateral meeting with Premier Wen in the margins of the ASEM V Summit in Vietnam in October 2004 and in November 2004, the Chinese Vice-Premier Huang Ju visited Ireland.

At the invitation of Premier Wen, the Taoiseach, accompanied by four Ministers, paid an official visit to China from 18 January to 22 January 2005. The purpose of the visit was to discuss and promote the further development of political, economic, social and cultural relations with China. There have also been regular exchanges of ministerial, parliamentary and official visits between Ireland and China. The Deputy himself participated in a very useful visit to China in September by the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Justice, Equality, Defence and Women's Rights. All these exchanges enable us to broaden and deepen our relations with China and develop a mutual understanding on many issues.

The Embassy in Beijing and the State agencies continue to focus actively on the promotion of Ireland in China and the development of closer relations across a range of areas. In addition to the goal of doubling our level of overall trade by 2010 set by the Taoiseach and the Chinese Premier in January, among the key areas for taking forward co-operation with China are education, agriculture and tourism.

There are, of course, also issues that remain of concern to Ireland. Dialogue on human rights occurs at every opportunity and progress in this dialogue is an important part of our developing relationship. The Government's approach is to seek to encourage the Chinese authorities to continue improving the human rights situation in China and we believe that this approach is the most likely to yield tangible long-term progress on respect for human rights. The Government will continue to work to strengthen our bilateral relations with China in every way possible. I hope to be in a position to visit China next year. President McAleese has invited President Hu Jintao to Ireland at a time to be agreed and this would, of course, represent a further important milestone in the development of Ireland's relations with China.