Let’s deepen our trade cooperation to better our economy, Chinese President Xi urges Ethiopia and Senegal
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Gerro Biko Business Staff writer
- Posted On 26-08-2023, 02:46PM
China is advancing Chinese modernization with its high-quality development, which will bring new opportunities to cooperation between China and Ethiopia, said Chinese President Xi Jinping on Wednesday.
China is a reliable friend and a true partner of Ethiopia, Xi said in a meeting with Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed on the sidelines of the 15th BRICS Summit.
He noted that in recent years, the two countries have maintained frequent high-level exchanges and communication, and have yielded results within the frameworks of the Belt and Road Cooperation and the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation.
China attaches great importance to its relations with Ethiopia and supports its domestic peace process, development, and revitalization, he said, adding that China stands ready to work with Ethiopia to promote bilateral exchanges and to expand all-round cooperation so that bilateral friendship can enjoy greater popular support and the China-Ethiopia comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership can witness further advancement.
Xi stressed that both sides need to continue to firmly support each other on issues concerning their core interests and major concerns, adding that the two countries should strengthen the synergy between the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative and Ethiopia's Ten Years Perspective Development Plan (2021-2030), and accelerate the development of joint projects including Addis Ababa-Djibouti Railway and green development.
China encourages more Chinese enterprises to invest and start their businesses in Ethiopia, welcoming the use by Ethiopia of the "green channel" for the entry of African agricultural products to China to expand bilateral economic and trade cooperation, said Xi.
China stands ready to work with Ethiopia in promoting the implementation of the Outlook on Peace and Development in the Horn of Africa and to make contributions to regional peace and stability, said Xi.
The friendship between Ethiopia and China is profound and the relations between the two countries have maintained good development momentum, said Ahmed, extending his sincere appreciation for the massive valuable support China has offered for a long time.
Thanks to the help from and cooperation with China, Ethiopia has achieved significant development and transformations in recent years, said the Ethiopian Prime Minister, noting that the two countries share similar experiences and have common stands on many major issues.
Ahmed said Ethiopia highly values its friendship with China, firmly upholds the one-China policy, supports the Global Development Initiative, the Global Security Initiative, and the Global Civilization Initiative proposed by Xi, and actively participates in the Belt and Road cooperation.
Ethiopia stands ready to learn from China's governance experience to better achieve its own national development, and is willing to deepen cooperation with China in agriculture, mining, and other fields, he said.
Ethiopia hopes to join the BRICS so as to push for closer cooperation in multilateral mechanisms and open up a better-shared future for the two countries.
At the same time, Chinese President Xi Jinping met on Wednesday with Senegalese President Macky Sall on the sidelines of the 15th BRICS Summit.
Noting that Senegal is an important partner of China in Africa, Xi said that with joint efforts in recent years, the two countries have enjoyed ever-deepening political mutual trust and fruitful cooperation in various fields.
Xi said that China firmly supports Senegal's endeavors in safeguarding national stability and development, adding that China stands ready to strengthen mutual support with Senegal and deepen cooperation in such areas as industry, agriculture, infrastructure, and human resources, jointly safeguarding their legitimate right to development, and push for greater development of their comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership.
He stressed that currently, the international situation is undergoing profound and complex changes and that China and Africa need more than ever to strengthen solidarity and cooperation.
Xi said China supports the African Union in joining the Group of 20 and stands ready to share with African brothers its development experience and opportunities and push for the joint pursuit of a China-Africa community with a shared future in the new era by continuously upholding the principles of sincerity, real results, amity and good faith and pursuing the greater good and shared interests.
Sall said that Senegal and China are high-quality comprehensive strategic partners, hailing Xi as a great friend of Africa and Senegal
As co-chairs of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), China and Senegal have supported and cooperated with each other and successfully held a series of important events including the Extraordinary China-Africa Summit on Solidarity against COVID-19, he said.
China, Xi added, stands ready to work with Senegal to continue to strengthen communication and coordination, push for the implementation of the nine programs announced at the FOCAC, and make new contributions to consolidating China-Africa solidarity and cooperation.
For his part, Sall said that Senegal and China are high-quality comprehensive strategic partners, hailing Xi as a great friend of Africa and Senegal.
He noted that the two sides, in the spirit of sincerity and friendship, have carried out mutually beneficial cooperation in a wide range of fields such as infrastructure, industry, agriculture, and education.
Senegal, he said, firmly adheres to the one-China policy, appreciates China's foreign policy of peace, and hopes to work with China to deepen bilateral and multilateral cooperation.
The vigorous Africa-China cooperation meets the development needs of Africa and has been implemented efficiently, which has strongly underpinned the economic and social development of African countries, he said.
Sall thanked China for taking the lead in publicly supporting AU's G20 membership, saying that his country, as a co-chair of FOCAC, will continue to closely communicate and work with China to promote the further development of Africa-China relations.
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