‘Summit to cement China-Africa ties’

BEIJING—The upcoming Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation will further consolidate the traditional Sino-African friendship and deepen their strategic partnership, Chinese Vice President Zeng Qinghong said on Friday.
Zeng made the remarks when meeting with Angolan Prime Minister Fernando da Piedade Dias dos Santos and Vice President of the Democratic Republic of Congo Abdoulaye Yerodia Ndombasi, who are in Beijing to attend the landmark summit scheduled for November 4-5. Zeng expressed appreciation of the two countries adherence to the one-China policy. During his meeting with Fernando, Zeng said China is willing to strengthen cooperation with Angola to lift bilateral relations to “a higher stage”. Fernando echoed Zeng, saying that Angola hopes to push forward political and economic cooperation with China.
When meeting Yerodia, Zeng said China will continue to support the Democratic Republic of Congo to protect national sovereignty and territorial integrity and promote the peace progress in an all- around way. “China will actively participate in the economic reconstruction of the Democratic Republic of Congo and push forward the exchange and cooperation between the two countries in various fields,” Zeng said. Yerodia said China is welcomed to take part in the reconstruction of his country. On the same day, Zeng also met Guinean State Minister of Foreign Affairs Mamadi Conde and Tunisian Minister of Development and International Cooperation Mohamed Nouri Jouini.
Ministerial meeting of China-Africa Forum held Ministers and representatives from China and 48 African countries held a ministerial meeting here Friday to make final preparations for a high-profile summit due to open Saturday. Participants discussed and passed an action plan, which lays out cooperative programs between China and Africa from 2007 to 2009 under the framework of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC).
The meeting, third of its kind since 2000, also deliberated on a draft declaration and decided to submit it to the FOCAC Beijing Summit, a landmark event which leaders from 48 African countries that have diplomatic relations with China are to participate in. The declaration is expected to be passed at the summit, which is themed on “friendship, peace, cooperation and development”. The two documents will give guiding principles for the development of China-Africa relations and their future cooperation, sources with China’s Foreign Ministry said. Chinese Vice Premier Wu Yi extolled the 50-year-long China- Africa relations at the opening ceremony of the meeting, saying that the FOCAC, which was set up in 2000, is a key strategic move by China and Africa to face up to the challenges in the new century, promote traditional friendship and enhance cooperation.
Wu said the FOCAC has launched a series of cooperative plans and become a key platform and effective mechanism for collective dialogue and pragmatic cooperation. “The FOCAC and its development will provide useful experience for South-South cooperation,” Wu said. The Vice Premier said the two sides should always instill new vitality into the Forum, and draw up plan for future cooperation and carry out follow-up activities to turn the Forum into a pacesetter in promoting China-Africa all-round friendship.
Meanwhile, “we should, with an eye on new developments, fully tap cooperation potential and draw on each other’s strengths to broaden and upgrade cooperation,” she said. Wu also called on the two sides to enhance coordination to ensure their cooperation to move forward smoothly. “The two sides should give full play to the role of the Forum as a mechanism of collective dialogue, keep close consultation, develop new consensus, closely study new trends in cooperation, expand common interests and appropriately address new problems arising in the course of cooperation, so as to turn the Forum into an effective platform for safeguarding the common interests of the two sides,” she said.
The meeting was jointly presided over by Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing, Ethiopia’s Foreign Minister Seyoum Mesfin, Ethiopia’s Minister of Finance and Economic Development Sufian Ahmed. Ethiopia is the FOCAC’s co-chair country. Addressing the opening ceremony, Seyoum said China has given Africa a lot of support in the fight against colonialism and for independence and scrupulously observed principles of international law governing inter-state relations. Seyoum said that is the reason “why this forum has made such progress and why on the African side there are full commitments to making the process a resounding success.”

—The Daily Mail-China Daily news exchange item