Ambassador Guang Defu, Permanent Representative of the People's Republic of China to the UN Agencies for Food and Agriculture, received visiting Ambassador Krisztina Bende, the newly appointed Permanent Representative of Switzerland to the UN Agencies for Food and Agriculture, on Sept. 8. 

Ambassador Guang extended a warm welcome to Ambassador Bende and expressed his appreciation for Ambassador Bende’s visit to China’s Permanent Representation to the UN Agencies for Food and Agriculture shortly after she assumed office in Rome. Ambassador Guang introduced China’s tremendous achievements in agriculture and poverty reduction since its reform and opening-up, and highlighted China’s active role in global food and agricultural affairs. Ambassador Guang said China and Switzerland have a long-standing friendship, stable political relations, close economic and trade exchanges, and vast cooperation potential. He said China hopes to work with Switzerland to deepen bilateral and multilateral cooperation in agriculture, especially strengthening China–Switzerland communication and cooperation within UN agencies for food and agriculture, so as to jointly contribute to the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Ambassador Bende expressed her gratitude for the warm reception. She said the visit was her first diplomatic event since taking office as Switzerland’s Permanent Representative, which fully demonstrates the great value  Switzerland has put on promoting pragmatic cooperation with China in UN food and agricultural affairs. Ambassador Bende once again congratulated Dr. Qu Dongyu of China on being re-elected as the FAO Director-General with a total of 168 votes at the 43rd Session of the FAO Conference. She highly commended the remarkable achievements FAO has made under the leadership of Director-General Qu, and expressed Switzerland's firm support for Director-General Qu. She also said she looked forward to further expanding and deepening cooperation with China in the UN Rome-based Agencies for Food and Agriculture. 

Counselor Marlene HEEB, Deputy Permanent Representative of Switzerland to the UN Agencies for Food and Agriculture, and Counselor Mei Hongyong, Deputy Permanent Representative of China to the UN Agencies for Food and Agriculture, attended the meeting.