Slovakia is an important partner of China in central and eastern Europe, and China hopes to promote their relations to a higher level, said Chinese Vice Premier Hui Liangyu in a meeting with Slovak President Ivan Gasparovic here on Friday.

Hui congratulated Slovakia for its great achievement in two decades as this year marks the 20th anniversary of the Slovak independence.

He said over the years, under the joint efforts of both sides, bilateral relations have developed steadily with growing political mutual trust and remarkable fruits in various fields of mutually beneficial cooperation.

Hui said that the cooperation between China and central and eastern European countries has shown good momentum, and China hopes Slovakia could play a greater role in the mutually beneficial cooperation between China and the central and eastern Europe countries.

Gasparovic said that the ties with China have always been one of the priorities of Slovakia in developing its foreign policy. He said that China's development provided important opportunities for Slovakia in overcoming the debt crisis.

The president said that Slovakia is willing to make joint efforts with China in increasing personnel exchanges, expanding areas of cooperation, enriching the content of cooperation in bids to bring tangible benefits to the peoples of all central and eastern European countries, and to further promote the China-European relations.