Chinese Premier Li Keqiang (R) meets with Romanian Prime Minister Viorica Dancila in Sofia, Bulgaria, July 7, 2018. (Xinhua/Liu Weibing)

SOFIA, July 7 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Premier Li Keqiang met here on Saturday with Romanian Prime Minister Viorica Dancila. The two sides agreed to deepen cooperation in such areas as infrastructure and finance.

During the meeting, Li lauded the profound traditional friendship between China and Romania.

"Next year marks the 70th anniversary of the establishment of our diplomatic relations," said Li, adding that China is ready to work with Romania to increase high-level visits and expand people-to-people exchanges, so as to inject new impetus into the development of China-Romania relations.

He said China is willing to work with Romania to promote pragmatic cooperation, especially pushing for substantive progress of major cooperation projects.

China supports its enterprises to participate in the construction of Romania's infrastructure and nuclear power projects in a fair and transparent manner and according to the needs of both sides, said Li.

He said China hopes to discuss with the Romanian side over third-party cooperation and financial cooperation, so to create more convenient conditions for bilateral trade and investment.

Dancila said Romania will work with China to cement their friendly relations, increase high-level exchanges and deepen cooperation in the sectors of interconnectivity, finance and aviation.

Romania welcomes China's investment in its infrastructure construction, said Dancila, noting that Romania will continue to optimize its legal and policy environment.

She also welcomed more Chinese tourists to visit Romania.

Romania will assume the rotating presidency of the European Union (EU) next year and hopes to continue to play an active role in advancing China-EU ties and the 16+1 cooperation, said Dancila.