China is willing to strengthen strategic communication with Ireland, deepen political mutual trust and expand pragmatic co-operation to benefit the peoples of both countries and add momentum to relations between Beijing and the European Union, President Xi Jinping said on Monday.

Xi said China is willing to strengthen economic and trade co-operation with Ireland, align development strategies in fields such as artificial intelligence, digital economy, and medicine and healthcare, promote two-way investment, leverage each other's strengths, share opportunities and pursue common development when he met with Ireland's Prime Minister Micheal Martin in Beijing, according to Xinhua News Agency.

Both China and Ireland support multilateralism and advocate international fairness and justice, the president added, while urging the two sides to strengthen co-ordination and co-operation in international affairs, and jointly maintain the authority of the United Nations and make the global governance system more just and equitable.

Xi said China and the EU should bear the long-term picture in mind, uphold the positioning of partnership, and view and handle differences objectively and rationally to work for win-win co-operation.

As Ireland will hold the rotating EU presidency in the second half of this year, the president said China hopes Ireland will play a constructive role in promoting the healthy and stable development of China-EU relations.

Noting that Ireland firmly adheres to the one-China policy, Martin said the country was committed to developing the strategic partnership for mutually beneficial cooperation between the two nations. He said Ireland is willing to deepen co-operation with China in trade, investment, science and technology, biomedicine, renewable energy, artificial intelligence, education and other fields.