Foreign leaders congratulate new Chinese president

BEIJING - Foreign leaders sent congratulatory messages Thursday to Xi Jinping on his election as the new Chinese president.

According to the Chinese Foreign Ministry, the leaders who have offered congratulations included Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari; Namibian President Hifikepunye Pohamba; top leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), Kim Jong-un; Vietnamese President Truong Tan Sang; President of Laos Choummaly Sayasone; Spanish King Juan Carlos I; Japanese Emperor Akihito and the Republic of Korea's President Park Geun-hye.

The leaders who have sent congratulatory messages also included Bangladeshi President Zillur Rahman; Singaporean President Tony Tan Keng Yam; Zambian President Michael Sata; Nigerien President Mahamadou Issoufou; Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos; Cypriot President Nikos Anastasiades; Hungarian President Janos Ader; Ukrainian President Victor Yanukovych; Kim Yong-nam, chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly of the DPRK; Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

Xi, general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), was elected state president of China and chairman of China's Central Military Commission earlier in the day at the plenary meeting of the first session of the 12th National People's Congress (NPC).

Foreign leaders also sent congratulatory messages to Zhang Dejiang on his election as chairman of the NPC Standing Committee, Yu Zhengsheng on his election as chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), and Li Yuanchao on his election as China's vice-president.

Zhang was elected chairman of the 12th NPC Standing Committee Thursday at the NPC plenary meeting.

Yu was elected chairman of the CPPCC, the top political advisory body, on Monday at the fourth plenary meeting of the first session of the 12th CPPCC National Committee.

Li was elected vice president of China Thursday at the NPC plenary meeting.