(Hina) - Croatian Foreign Minister Vesna Pusic said on Monday that China viewed "with positive understanding" her nomination for the post of UN Secretary-General.
Pusić is one of the candidates for the successor to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon whose term in office expires in December 2016.
"China naturally has all the information on the matter and views the candidacy with positive understanding. It is, of course, a long process, one should see how it will go, but we also discussed that topic and the talks were good," Pusić said.
The Croatian minister met on the margins of the 70th UN General Assembly session in New York with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi.
The two ministers also discussed the project "1+16", a framework for economic cooperation between China and eastern European countries. Pusić said that the project had not fully come into being because China seeks state guarantees as a rule, which is contrary to EU regulations.
"But, since big European countries have an intensive economic cooperation with China, Croatia, too, must find a way to overcome those obstacles and take the opportunity," said Pusić.
Member-states of the General Assembly have agreed in principle that priority in the election of the next UN Secretary-General should be given to candidates from Eastern Europe and that a woman should be elected to chair the UN for the first time in its history.
For the time being Eastern Europe has four candidates. One is Pusić and the other candidates are UNESCO Secretary-General Irina Bokova of Bulgaria, Danilo Tuerk of Slovenia and Srdjan Kerim of Macedonia.
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