On September 26, the Chinese Embassy in Norway held a reception in Oslo to celebrate the 74th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China. More than 500 people attended the event, including Mr. Andreas Motzfeldt Kravik, State Secretary of the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA), Mr. Torgeir Larsen, Secretary General of the Norwegian MFA, and representatives from all sectors, as well as foreign diplomatic envoys, representatives of overseas Chinese, Chinese students and enterprises in Norway.

Ambassador Hou Yue delivered a speech at the reception. She said, over the past 74 years, under the leadership of the Communist Party of China, the Chinese people realized national  independence and liberation, achieved rapid economic development and long-term social stability, lifted over 800 million people out of absolute poverty, made remarkable achievements in innovation and green development, and reached successfully the first centenary goal of building a moderately prosperous society in all aspects, embarking on a new journey of comprehensively building a modern socialist country. At present, China is advancing the Chinese path to modernization through high-quality development and high-level opening-up. The fundamentals of China's economy will remain strong in the long run, and China will continue to share the new opportunities of our development with Norway and other global partners.

Ambassador Hou pointed out that, China and Norway have maintained a strong momentum in our healthy and stable bilateral relations. In 2022, our bilateral trade reached 18.5 billion USD, and China has become Norway's second-largest source of imports and the largest destination for exports outside Europe. High-quality Norwegian seafood is becoming popular in more Chinese households, and Chinese electric cars are more commonly seen on Norwegian streets. China and Norway share common values in addressing climate change, upholding multilateralism, and there is tremendous potential for cooperation in areas such as marine economy, green transformation and multilateral affairs.

Ambassador Hou stressed that, global challenges demand coordinated global efforts; failure to cooperate is the biggest risk, and failure to develop is the biggest threat. Faced with changes of the world, of our times and of history, China has put forward Global Development Initiatives, Global Security Initiatives, and Global Civilization Initiatives, hoping to work with all countries to build a community with a shared future for mankind. Next year, China and Norway will celebrate the 70th anniversary of diplomatic ties. In the future, we are looking forwards to upholding the principles of mutual respect and win-win cooperation, continuing to promote further development of our bilateral relations into another splendid 70 years.

On behalf of the Norwegian government, State Secretary Mr. Kravik delivered a speech to warmly congratulate the 74th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, saying that China has made great contributions to global poverty reduction, its national achievements in the past decades are remarkable and international influence continues to increase. Since the beginning of the year, high-level exchanges between our two countries have been resumed sequentially, and the foreign ministers are expected to exchange visits within this year. The Norwegian side attaches great importance to the high-level exchanges in promoting bilateral cooperation and dialogue.

Mr. Kravik said, both Norway and China are deeply integrated into the global trading system and the two countries are highly complementary in trade. Norway looks forward to close economic and trade exchanges with China. At present, global challenges such as climate change and environmental protection are becoming more prominent. We have been carrying out practical cooperation in these areas for many years, and Norway hopes to continue to work with China to realize the global sustainable development goals. Next year marks the 70th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between Norway and China. Norway hopes to take this opportunity to further underpin bilateral relations and make our friendship continue to blossom.

At the reception, the guests watched the exhibition themed "Brilliant Decade of China in the New Era" and the feature video for the 74th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, enjoyed the piano music "Holberg Suite: Prelude" composed by Edvard Grieg and "Colorful Clouds Chasing the Moon" both played by Chinese pianists in Norway. The guests congratulated the anniversary, highly commended China's economic and social development achievements, and wished that, through further exchanges and cooperation, they could jointly promote the steady and long-term development of China-Norway relations.