DUBLIN, May 12 (Xinhua) -- Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar has told a visiting senior Chinese official that his country is willing to deepen exchanges and cooperation with China in all fields under the framework of the Belt and Road (B&R) Initiative.

Varadkar made the remarks during a meeting on Thursday with Cai Qi, a member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and secretary of the CPC Beijing Municipal Committee.

During the meeting at his office building, Varadkar said that Ireland is willing to further exchanges with China at various levels, continue deepening exchanges and cooperation with China in all fields under the framework of the B&R Initiative, and push forward the development of bilateral ties.

He also said that the Irish side is willing to deepen the party-to-party exchanges, and strengthen cooperation with Beijing Municipality, so as to help promote the strategic partnership for the mutual benefit of the two countries.

For his part, Cai said both countries have in recent years maintained high-level contacts, strong momentum of economic and trade cooperation, and deepening cultural exchanges.

Next year will mark the 40th anniversary of the establishment of the China-Ireland diplomatic ties. Cai said China is willing to work with Ireland to deepen exchanges and enhance cooperation and alignment of strategies under the B&R Initiative, so as to strengthen the strategic partnership.

He said that the CPC is willing to strengthen the exchanges and learning from each other with the ruling Fine Gael party, and that Beijing Municipality will further deepen mutually-beneficial cooperation with Ireland.

Cai led a CPC delegation for a three-day visit to Ireland at the invitation of the Irish government, which ended on Friday.

During his visit, Cai also met with Irish officials at different levels, witnessed a signing ceremony of a cooperation agreement between Beijing University of Technology and University College Dublin.