Chinese Vice Premier Liu Yandong with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday. Photo: PM of Israel via Twitter.

JNS.org – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Chinese Vice Premier Liu Yandong announced Tuesday that they will open talks on a bilateral free trade agreement between their nations.

“This is a momentous development and we are ready to do so right away. We have so much that we can do together. We discussed the various fields in which this can happen — in healthcare, in remote education, in agriculture, in marine agriculture, in IT. In every field of human endeavor the cooperation between Israel and China can yield enormous results. And we believe that Israel can be a perfect partner,” Netanyahu said during the 2016 Israel-China innovation conference at the Israeli Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem.

Yandong said China is pleased to start the negotiations with Israel on a free-trade zone, adding that China “takes Israel very seriously.”

China and Israel signed 13 bilateral cooperation agreements at the innovation conference. The agreements focus on education, agriculture, science and technology, intellectual property, healthcare, and the exchange of human resources.