TIRANA - The traditional friendship between China and Albania should serve as a foundation for further development of their cooperation, two senior officials of the countries agreed on Thursday.

Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said the peoples of both countries have forged profound friendship, which provides a rich soil for them to foster their bilateral relations.

"Our two countries have friendly political relations, complementary economy and trade, solid public support and a high degree of consensus for the further development of bilateral relations," Yang said.

The development of bilateral relations is facing new opportunities and the two countries should maintain high-level exchanges of visit and strengthen economic, trade cooperation and people-to-people exchanges, he said.

Noting that legislative exchanges constitute an important part of their bilateral relations, Yang encouraged the legislative bodies of both countries to have more cooperation to benefit their peoples.

The friendly traditions with China are a fond memory to the Albanian people, said Albanian parliament speaker Jozefina Topalli.

The Albanians admire the achievements China has made, adding that the friendship between both peoples is a valuable property for the two nations.

"Albania is willing to further deepen bilateral pragmatic cooperation with China, and turn the friendship into tangible results," she said.