Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Inhazio Cassis, member of the Federal Council and head of the Swiss Foreign Ministry, jointly held the 3rd round of the China-Switzerland Foreign Ministerial Strategic Dialogue in Beijing on Wednesday.

Wang Yi, who is also a member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, said China-Switzerland relations have stood the test of time, have long been at the forefront of China's bilateral relations with Western countries and are exemplary.

According to the Chinese foreign minister, China is ready to open up new prospects for China-Switzerland relations of innovative strategic partnership together with Switzerland under the leadership of the two leaders.

Cassis, for his part, pointed out that the two countries understand each other and have frank exchanges, and the existing differences do not affect bilateral cooperation. He added that Switzerland is willing to work with China to promote the further development of the Swiss-Chinese innovative strategic partnership relationship.

The two sides agreed to continue to respect each other's core interests, important concerns, system choices and development paths, and make effective use of the numerous mechanisms of intergovernmental dialog and cooperation. They also agreed to deepen cooperation in areas such as finance, science and innovation, education, intellectual property rights, climate change, green development and winter sports.

The Bedel checkpoint will be opened in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region / Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Northwest China/ this year, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR, Northwest China) Government Chairman Erkin Tuniyaz said on Tuesday, delivering a working report at the ongoing 2nd session of the 14th XUAR People's Congress.

The Bedel checkpoint, located on China's border with Kyrgyzstan, is more than 70 kilometers from Wushi County of Aksu District in Xinjiang and about 80 kilometers from the city of Karakol in Kyrgyzstan's Issyk-Kul Province. In addition, this checkpoint is only 350 kilometers from the Kazakh city of Almaty.

According to the report, Xinjiang will also accelerate the promotion of year-round operation of the Hongerab checkpoint on the China-Pakistan border.

In 2024, Xinjiang will accelerate the construction of infrastructure at border crossings and the establishment of "smart checkpoints," continuously optimizing the customs clearance process and enhancing cargo clearance capabilities, the report said.

At the end of February 2024, a regular passenger airline linking Shenyang, Liaoning Province in northeastern China, with the Russian capital of Moscow is expected to open. Liaoning in northeastern China's Shenyang Province with the Russian capital of Moscow.

A relevant protocol on cooperation intentions was signed on Monday by the People's Government of Shenyang and China Eastern Airlines at the China-Russia Trade and Economic Cooperation Fair-2024 in Shenyang.

The opening of the Shenyang-Moscow scheduled air service on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Russia is an important result of efforts to promote practical and in-depth friendly exchanges and business cooperation between the two countries at the local level. The new route will play an important role in promoting bilateral trade and economic ties and human contacts, said a responsible official of the city's commerce department.

Shenyang currently has 10 international and regional passenger routes connecting the city with major cities in the Republic of Korea, Japan, Vietnam, Singapore, as well as Xiangyang SAR, Aomeng SAR and Taiwan.

Foreign trade turnover of Shanghai city in eastern China rose to 4.21 trillion yuan /approximately 591.57 billion U.S. dollars/ in 2023, up 0.7 percent year-on-year, Shanghai Customs said Friday. U.S. dollars/, up 0.7 percent from a year earlier, Shanghai Customs said Friday.

Specifically, the city's exports rose 1.6 percent year-on-year to 1.74 trillion yuan last year, while imports rose 0.1 percent to 2.47 trillion yuan, the data showed.

Shanghai's trade with the EU rose 2.7 percent year-on-year to 844.57 billion yuan, accounting for 20.1 percent of the city's total foreign trade.

Shanghai exported advanced products such as electric passenger cars, lithium-ion batteries and solar panels in 2023. Exports of such products from the city reached 167.79 billion yuan, up 42.2 percent from 2022, accounting for 9.7 percent of the city's total exports.

Shanghai imported 561.83 billion yuan worth of consumer goods last year, up 7.3 percent from a year earlier, accounting for 22.7 percent of the city's total imports.

The closure of the Suez route has changed the fundamental outlook for container shipping in 2024, with a potential capacity crunch in Asia looming in the short term, according to the January report of the Baltic Exchange.

In the report, Vespucci Maritime CEO Lars Jensen wrote that up until mid-December 2023, the baseline outlook for 2024 was for a continued cyclical downturn likely with freight rates bottoming out in late 1Q or early 2Q 2024.

Jensen wrote, “After this, it was anticipated that carriers would begin to idle more capacity to stabilise and strengthen rates from what had already become loss-making levels. The de-facto closure of the Suez routing has changed this baseline outlook fundamentally.”

Threats of attacks by Iran-backed Houthi rebels in the Red Sea, the entry to the Suez, has made many operators detour vessels around the Cape of Good Hope.

Operating the Asia-Europe and part of the Asia-US East Coast network will absorb 5 to 6% of global capacity. This should be manageable given the amount of overcapacity that had accumulated in the market.