On October 11, 2003, Assistant Foreign Minister Shen Guofang met with visiting Iraqi Trade Minister Ali Alawi.

Shen said that China has always been concerned with the situation in Iraq and hopes the Iraqi people will rebuild their homeland at an early date and take the path to stability and development. The Chinese side supports a new resolution by the UN Security Council, deciding upon the timetable to restore Iraq's sovereignty, enhance transparency to the rebuilding process and give full play to the role of the UN.

Shen stressed that the peoples of China and Iraq have traditional friendship. China attaches importance to the rebuilding of Iraq and would like to take an active part in it. China will continue to provide assistance to the Iraqi people within its capacity.

Alawi spoke highly of the traditional friendship between the peoples of Iraq and China and thanked China for its great amount of selfless assistance and support to Iraq in the past years. Alawi said that the post-war Iraq urgently needs various kinds of support from the international community. The Iraqi side welcomes active participation from the Chinese government and enterprises in post-war rebuilding of Iraq and China's attending of the donors' conference on post-war reconstruction to be held in Madrid, Spain.