BEIJING -- President Xi Jinping met with President of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) Mirjana Spoljaric Egger in Beijing on Tuesday.

Xi spoke highly of the international humanitarian work carried out by the ICRC over the past 160 years since its founding and hailed its important contributions to world peace and progress.

Xi noted that the world today is undergoing profound changes unseen in a century, and human society is faced with many challenges, some of which are familiar and some are new. Under such circumstances, China is strengthening cooperation with other countries to jointly explore solutions and promote the building of a community with a shared future for humanity, Xi said.

"I put forward the Belt and Road Initiative, the Global Development Initiative, the Global Security Initiative and the Global Civilization Initiative in the hope of working with other countries to achieve economic development, improve people's livelihood, achieve win-win results, and provide Chinese ideas and solutions for strengthening global governance and governance of humanitarian issues," Xi said.

Calling humanitarianism the greatest consensus that is able to unite different civilizations, Xi said the ideas contained in traditional Chinese culture such as "the benevolent man loves others" and "do not do to others what you do not want others to do to you" are in harmony with the mission of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement.

Upholding the principle of putting the people first, China has won the biggest battle against poverty in human history. In the face of COVID-19, China has not only protected the lives and health of its own people but also launched the largest global humanitarian assistance in history, Xi said.

"Facts have proven that China is an active supporter, participant and contributor to the international humanitarian cause. China is ready to work more closely with the ICRC and make important contributions to human peace and progress," Xi said.

Spoljaric congratulated China on becoming the country with the largest number of recipients of the 49th Florence Nightingale Award, which shows that the ICRC and the international community highly recognize China's humanitarian achievements.

Spoljaric said China has always respected and implemented international humanitarian law, and the Belt and Road Initiative has promoted world development and advanced the global humanitarian cause. She added that the ICRC highly appreciates China's positive role and important contributions to the international humanitarian cause and looks forward to further deepening cooperation with China.