Chinese President Xi Jinping held talks with visiting Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic in Beijing on Monday.

Xi recalled that during his state visit to Serbia in 2024, the two sides together opened a new chapter in building a China-Serbia community with a shared future in the new era.

Over the past two years, the building of a community with a shared future between China and Serbia has yielded positive results, benefiting the people of the two countries and setting a model for relations between countries, Xi said.

He noted that the Chinese and Serbian nations have both experienced hardships and glories with perseverance and unyielding determination, pursued independence and safeguarded national dignity, and stressed both sides share a profound understanding of peaceful development, justice and fairness.

Xi called on the two sides to enhance exchanges, consolidate mutual trust, deepen cooperation and support each other, and join hands to forge a bright path of shared destiny and common prosperity, so as to push the China-Serbia comprehensive strategic partnership to new heights.

The ironclad friendship between China and Serbia is unique and has deep historical roots and solid practical foundation, said Xi as he urged the two sides to continue to firmly support each other.

Xi expressed China's steadfast support for Serbia in following a development path that suits its own national conditions and voiced readiness to enhance exchanges of experience in governance with Serbia.

The Chinese president called for more bilateral efforts to enhance the alignment of the countries' respective development strategies, implement the medium-term action plan for Belt and Road cooperation, and continuously promote cooperation in areas such as transportation and energy infrastructure.

Facing the new wave of technological revolution and industrial transformation, both sides should intensify cooperation in emerging sectors such as artificial intelligence, digital economy, green energy and advanced manufacturing, and explore new growth drivers, Xi said.

He called on the two sides to continue to enhance youth and people-to-people exchanges, make good use of the three-dimensional framework of "visa exemption plus free trade plus direct flights," and comprehensively expand cooperation in culture, education, sports, tourism, localities and other fields, thus inheriting and carrying forward the traditional friendship between the Chinese and Serbian people.

Pointing out that the current international situation is characterized by complex and volatile changes, Xi said that China and Serbia should continue to enhance coordination and cooperation in international affairs, practice true multilateralism, and make unremitting efforts to promote an equal and orderly multi-polar world and inclusive economic globalization that benefits all, and advance the building of a community with a shared future for humanity.

Vucic said that since Serbia established a comprehensive strategic partnership with China, bilateral relations have made remarkable progress and cooperation in various fields has been continuously deepened.

Highlighting the ironclad friendship between the two peoples, Vucic said that the Serbian people will never forget China's support for Serbia in maintaining its independence and sovereignty and independently exploring its development path.

He expressed gratitude to Chinese enterprises for participating in and making significant contributions to Serbia's national construction.

Serbia attaches great importance to developing relations with China and unwaveringly and firmly supports China's core interests, the Serbian president said.

Vucic said he looks forward to seeing Serbia working closely with China to deepen high-quality Belt and Road cooperation, advance major project construction, enhance people-to-people exchanges, and achieve more tangible results in bilateral relations.

China, as a major country, has always treated small countries on an equal footing and with mutual respect and observed international law, setting an example for the rest of the world, Vucic said.

He added that Serbia stands ready to work with China to strengthen multilateral coordination and uphold international peace, fairness and justice.

After the talks, the two heads of state witnessed the signing of over 20 cooperation documents in areas including politics, economy and trade, science and technology, education and culture.

The two sides also issued a joint statement on continuously promoting the building of a China-Serbia community with a shared future in the new era and a joint statement on jointly promoting the implementation of the four global initiatives.

Prior to the talks, Xi and his wife Peng Liyuan held a welcome ceremony for Vucic and his wife Tamara Vucic at the Great Hall of the People.

On Monday evening, Xi and Peng hosted a welcoming banquet for the couple.

At the invitation of Xi, Vucic is on a state visit to China from Sunday to Thursday, with this marking his first state visit to China and his ninth trip to the country overall.