Cerar highlighted the 16+1 initiative involving China and Central and Eastern European countries as a very useful platform for cooperation.

Cerar and Zhang, whose working visit coincides with the 25th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Slovenia and China, hailed the good relations, agreeing to further deepen the two countries' partnership.

The focus of the talks with the highest ranking Chinese official to visit Slovenia so far was on economic cooperation, which has been getting stronger in recent years, with China being Slovenia's 12th biggest trading partner.

One notable area of growth has been tourism, with Slovenia recording 45,000 arrivals of Chinese tourists last year, a 19.4% increase on the year before. The pair talked about further encouraging this trend, including through better transport links.

Cerar was moreover happy to highlight the rising number of joint projects in high tech and products with the highest added value.

As regards the 16+1 initiative, Cerar pointed out Slovenia was very active in the field of agriculture and forestry, where it is acting as a coordinator and will host a meeting focusing on agriculture in August.

The pair also dedicated a lot of attention to sports, digitalisation, aviation, higher education, science and culture.

They moreover touched on international topics, with Cerar for instance describing China's One Belt, One Road initiative as an additional opportunity to encourage cooperation and strengthen the strategic partnership between the EU and China, the PM's office said.