China  will work with Serbia to forge ahead together to open up a new vista in  China-Serbia cooperation "with stronger momentum, greater scope, and  higher quality," Xi said.

BELGRADE,  May 8 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping kicked off his second  state visit to Serbia on Tuesday night with the aim of fortifying the  ironclad friendship between China and Serbia amidst evolving global  dynamics.

Upon  his arrival, Xi said China will work with Serbia to forge ahead  together to open up a new vista in China-Serbia cooperation "with  stronger momentum, greater scope, and higher quality."

Serbia  has rolled out its red carpet for Xi. Among those welcoming Xi at the  Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport was his Serbian counterpart, Aleksandar  Vucic. The two heads of state will hold meetings on Wednesday.

Two  fighter jets were dispatched to escort Xi's plane upon its entry into  Serbia's airspace. Over the past days, the streets of Belgrade have been  richly ornamented with Chinese features, not least the flying Chinese  national flags and waving banners.

In  a signed article published Tuesday in Politika, a Belgrade-based  Serbian daily, Xi wrote that the ironclad friendship between the two  countries is ever-growing. "Whatever changes in the international  landscape, China and Serbia remain true friends and good partners."

"Together we will build a China-Serbia community with a shared future in the new era," Xi wrote.

The  Chinese president's arrival coincides with the 25th anniversary of the  NATO bombing of the Chinese embassy in the former Federal Republic of  Yugoslavia.

In  1999, the U.S.-led NATO forces carried out savage airstrikes for 78  days against Yugoslavia, leaving more than 8,000 civilians dead or  injured and nearly 1 million more displaced. On the night of May 7,  exactly 25 years ago, NATO bombed the Chinese embassy, killing three  Chinese journalists, including one from Xinhua.

"The  Chinese people cherish peace, but we will never allow such tragic  history to repeat itself," Xi wrote in the article. "The China-Serbia  friendship, forged with the blood of our compatriots, will stay in the  shared memory of the Chinese and Serbian peoples, and will inspire us to  march forward with big strides."

Aleksandar  Mitic, research fellow in International Relations at the Institute of  International Politics and Economics in Belgrade, told Xinhua that the  friendship, tempered by blood and fire, "will represent a cornerstone  for cooperation in the future."

During  Xi's last state visit to Serbia in 2016, Xi made the site of the old  embassy as his first stop to pay homage to the Chinese martyrs killed in  the NATO bombing in 1999.

The  ruins of the embassy have now been revamped into a Chinese cultural  center for local residents in Serbia to learn both Chinese language and  traditional culture. The square outside the center was also renamed  "Serbia-China Friendship Square."

Gordana,  a local resident working nearby who didn't reveal her full name,  referred to the bombing as a "painful memory" to her. "The cooperation  between China and Serbia holds the promise of providing my children with  a better life than I experienced," she told Xinhua.

Past  years have seen leapfrog growth of China-Serbia cooperation. Two-way  trade in 2023 surged to 4.35 billion U.S. dollars, Chinese customs  statistics showed. In 2022, China became the largest source of direct  investment for Serbia. In October 2023, witnessed by Xi and Vucic, China  and Serbia signed a free trade agreement. After the deal takes effect,  more than 60 percent of taxable items will become tariff-free  immediately, and the final import volume proportion of both sides with  zero-tariff items will reach about 95 percent.

Under  the framework of the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative are  flagship projects such as the Smederevo Steelworks and the high-speed  railway between Belgrade and Budapest. An integral segment of the  Belgrade-Budapest railway is the high-speed train linking Belgrade and  Serbia's second-largest city Novi Sad, which has transported some 6.83  million passengers over the past two years.

"We  mainly cooperated in the field of transportation and energy field,"  said Katarina Zakic, head of the Regional Centre Belt and Road at the  Institute of International Politics and Economics. In the future,  cooperation will be important in the fields of green energy and  e-commerce, she told Xinhua.

Already,  Chinese companies and their Serbian counterparts are working on a  number of green energy programs, such as the Saraorci Photovoltaic  Project. Upon completion, the project will provide more than 16 million  kilowatt-hours of green electricity every year and reduce carbon dioxide  emissions by 16,000 tons.

Serbia,  undoubtedly, stands as a reliable partner for China in Europe, said  Aleksandar Vojvodic, head engineer of the Clean Serbia Project of China  Road and Bridge Corporation.

There will be a promising prospect for further enhancement and expansion of existing cooperation, said Vojvodic.