On 28 September 2021, Ambassador He Xiangdong met with Mr. Joe Hackett, new Secretary General of the Department of Foreign Affairs of Ireland.

Ambassador He extended congratulations to Mr. Hackett for his inauguration. He said that China-Ireland relations has maintained good momentum in recent years. Both sides enjoy frequent high-level exchanges, sound development in aspects including economic and trade, people-to-people exchanges and local cooperation, and good coordination and communication in handling international and regional issues and tackling global challenges. China is willing to make joint efforts with Ireland to further enhance reciprocal cooperation in various areas, strengthen communication and coordination in multilateral and international platforms including the UN, jointly uphold multilateralism, and respect each other's core interests and major concerns, so as to promote the steady and long-term development of China-Ireland strategic relationship for mutually beneficial cooperation.

Secretary General Hackett positively reviewed the current Ireland-China relations and stressed that the Irish Government attaches great importance to developing Ireland's relations with China. There are plenty of opportunities for the two countries to cast cooperation both bilaterally and multilaterally. The Irish side appreciates the valuable support from the Chinese side during Ireland's presidency of the UN Security Council. Ireland would like to further deepen practical collaborations with China in economic and trade as well as in agriculture areas, expand people-to-people exchanges, and maintain communication and coordination on peacekeeping, climate change and so on, to achieve new progress in Ireland-China relations.

They exchanged views on specific issues of common concern.