Recently, Ambassador Zhang Qiyue in Greece made a special trip to visit Amalia Matiatou, a major founder of the Greek-Chinese Friendship Association and the first vice chairperson of the Association, and sent her New Year's greetings.

Ambassador Zhang stated, "At the beginning of the Chinese Lunar New Year, on behalf of all the staff members of the Chinese Embassy in Greece, I have come to visit you. You are an old friend, a good friend, and a true friend of the Chinese people. For sixty years, you have been persistently working hard for the friendly exchanges between the Chinese and Greek people. The Greek-Chinese Friendship Association is a witness and practitioner of China-Greece relations. It takes it as its responsibility to promote the two countries to enhance understanding, promote cooperation, and inherit friendship, and has made important contributions to promoting exchanges and cooperation in various fields between the two sides. The Chinese government and people highly appreciate and express sincere gratitude for the Association's long-term commitment to promoting China-Greece friendship. In the new year, I wish you good health, peace, and smoothness. I hope the Greek-Chinese Friendship Association will continue to play the role of a bond and a bridge in the people-to-people exchanges between the two countries."

Matiatou thanked Ambassador Zhang for taking the time to visit her at her home.

Ms. Matiatou also affectionately recalled many moments when the Greek-Chinese Friendship Association has promoted Greece-China friendship over the decades. She said that the Greek-Chinese Friendship Association is the earliest Greece-based friendship group towards China. In 1956, a Greek folk friendship delegation visited New China for the first time via Moscow, and she herself was one of the members of the delegation. During the visit to China, Chairman Mao Zedong cordially received the delegation. He praised them as friendly envoys of the two peoples and encouraged them to do work for the friendly exchanges between the two peoples. She is very glad to see the fruitful results achieved in various fields of cooperation between Greece and China at present, and believes that the future of China-Greece relations will be even better.

Source: Website of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Feb, 02, 2020. (With deletions. Editor's note: Matiatou is also the Chairperson of the Euro-Chinese Centre for Research and Development, an EU think tank.)

Translated by Gao Xiaotong