China welcomes Bertie Ahern, the ‘elder statesman’

When he was taoiseach, the former Fianna Fáil leader Bertie Ahern launched what was called his Asia Strategy. Cynics might joke about him wanting to ape the collapse of the Asian Tigers with a similar achievement for the Celtic variety, but in fact it was the more straightforward idea of boosting trade links – an objective in pursuit of which he led Irish delegations to such enormous potential markets as India and China.

He and China, in particular, appear to have hit it off. Ahern has been a frequent visitor there in the years since his departure from the Irish political stage.

He is involved with an Irish-registered company called the Council for Irish Chinese Co-operation, where the directors include Ahern’s former Dublin Central constituency treasurer Dominic Dillane and a brother of the former FF TD Cyprian Brady.

Reports in this newspaper and in far-away Chinese outlets have covered several Ahern visits, which tend to focus on business and political links between this island and one of the most intriguing countries in the world.

Yesterday the People's Daily Online published the latest such report, under the headline: "Chinese vice premier meets elder statesmen."

The piece reported on how Chinese vice-premier Liu Yandong had just met former French prime minister Dominique de Villepin and our own elder statesman.

The pair (of Europeans) were to attend the third annual conference of the Taihu World Cultural Forum in Shanghai.

“Liu said it is conducive to increasing mutual understanding and trust among nations to enhance cultural exchanges and strengthen soft power interaction, which are also the needs for world peace and development,” according to the Chinese report.

“China is willing to conduct extensive communication with foreign countries to deepen mutual understanding in culture and society, so as to achieve common development,” it added.

Also there were Denis Sassou Nguesso, president of the Republic of the Congo, and president of the 66th UN General Assembly Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser, according to local reports.

We couldn’t find any photographs.