Chinese Premier Li Qiang held talks with Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed in Beijing on Thursday, stressing that China stands ready to expand all-round cooperation with Ethiopia.
Abiy is in Beijing for the 2024 Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) and an official visit.
At the talks, Li recalled that President Xi Jinping delivered a keynote speech at the opening ceremony of the 2024 FOCAC summit on Thursday, proposed the major initiative that China and Africa work together to jointly advance their respective modernization, and announced a package of new measures for pragmatic cooperation, injecting new impetus for the development of China-Africa relations.
China and Ethiopia are all-weather strategic partners, he said, adding that the two countries are both major developing countries and BRICS members, with a strong foundation, huge potential and broad prospects for cooperation.
China is willing to join hands with Ethiopia to consolidate political mutual trust, deepen the all-weather friendship and expand all-round cooperation between the two countries, and work with Ethiopia for greater progress in bilateral ties, Li said.
He noted that China stands ready to continue to work together with Ethiopia to help and support each other, marching forward shoulder-to-shoulder on the path to common development.
The two sides should deeply synergize their development strategies, expand the scale of trade and investment, enhance connectivity, and actively explore cooperation in emerging industries such as new energy, the digital economy and artificial intelligence, Li said.
He stated that China is willing to import more quality products from Ethiopia and encourage more Chinese companies to invest in Ethiopia.
China supports Ethiopia in fully integrating itself into BRICS cooperation and stands ready to advance Global South cooperation with Ethiopia, Li added.
Speaking on the same occasion, Abiy said Ethiopia is willing to push for implementation of the outcomes of the FOCAC summit, learn from China successful experience in reform and opening up, further expand Africa-China trade, and contribute to promoting Africa's industrialization process.
He said Ethiopia looks forward to deepening cooperation with China in the fields of economy and trade, investment, industry, agriculture, sci-tech innovation, the digital economy, security, law enforcement and tourism, and advancing all-weather strategic partnership between the two countries.
Ethiopia will strengthen coordination and collaboration with China within the frameworks of various multilateral mechanisms such as the United Nations and BRICS, to make global governance fairer and more equitable, Abiy said. After the talks, Li and Abiy witnessed the signing of bilateral cooperation documents on Belt and Road cooperation, economic and trade cooperation, exports of Ethiopian agricultural products to China, space technology, Earth science, green and low-carbon development, rural development, people's livelihoods, justice and media.
Prior to the talks, Li held a welcome ceremony for Abiy.
Abiy laid a wreath at the Monument to the People's Heroes at the Tian'anmen Square in Beijing on Wednesday afternoon.
China ready to expand all-round cooperation with Ethiopia: premier
