Per Westerberg, the Parliament Speaker made such comment at the Chinese Embassy in Sweden, when he attended a reception to welcome the new Chinese ambassador, Chen Yuming, who formally presented credentials to the Swedish King, Carl XVI Gustaf on Thursday.

Westerberg said such bilateral "special relationship", meaning very close friendship, understanding and cultures, are based on exchanges of delegations, tourism, and trade.

Cooperation with China has been highlighted by the high-level delegation exchanges in both scale and scope, said Westerberg, "it means we have very close cooperation."

He illustrated that today, in areas of tourism, there have been over 100,000 Chinese tourists visited Sweden, and the same level applies to the Swedish. About 3,000 Swedish students live and study in China today, and vice versa.

Many years of sound bilateral trade relationship is symbolized by the fact that around 10,000 Swedish companies have established trade and relations with China, 400 of which have branches in China, meaning that "China is by far our largest trading partner in Asia".

Westerberg said Sweden has enjoyed 200 years of peace, which is pragmatic but has won hard by staying out of wars. The long-lasting peace has created friendship and prosperity for the Swedish people.

"People to people means friendship, cooperation, understanding our different cultures, and create not just peace, but even prosperity, because it creates trade, and trade creates prosperity in the long run," said Westerberg.

He welcomes Chen's new term in Sweden, and expects him to expand this special Sino-Swedish relationship, by promoting "exchanges of delegations, tourism and trade" as "the world needs a lot of peace and understanding of different cultures and different countries."

This article was produced by China's state-controlled news agency Xinhua.