Messages exchanged on anniversary of establishment of diplomatic relations

President Xi Jinping exchanged congratulatory messages with his Ethiopian counterpart Sahle-Work Zewde on Tuesday to mark the 50th anniversary of the establishment of bilateral diplomatic relations.

In his message, Xi noted that the steadfast traditional friendship between the two countries has stood the test of time since their diplomatic ties were forged half a century ago, and they have established a comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership in recent years with political mutual trust deepening progressively.

Two-way cooperation in various fields has yielded fruitful results, the two countries offer mutual understanding and support on issues involving each other's core interests and major concerns, and they work closely in international and regional affairs, Xi said.

Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the two sides have helped each other and set an example of unity in the joint fight by China and Africa against the pandemic, Xi said.

Xi said he highly values the growth of China-Ethiopia relations and is willing to work with his counterpart to take the anniversary as an opportunity to further turn into reality the outcomes of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation Beijing Summit in 2018 and the Extraordinary China-Africa Summit on Solidarity Against COVID-19 this year.

Xi added that he is ready to strengthen cooperation in jointly building the Belt and Road to benefit the two countries and the two peoples and make contributions to building a closer China-Africa community with a shared future.

Solid foundation

Zewde said that since the establishment of diplomatic ties 50 years ago, bilateral relations, on the basis of close cooperation and political mutual trust, have deepened constantly and bilateral cooperation has been fruitful.

The bilateral relationship has been upgraded to a comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership, which laid a solid foundation for progressively deepening cooperation in various fields in the future and for benefiting the two countries and the two peoples, she said.

Zewde said she looks forward to working closely with Xi to continuously promote the traditional friendly relations, deepen and expand bilateral cooperation and bolster the well-being of the two countries and the two peoples.