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DAKAR - Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Mozambican Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation Veronica Macamo on Sunday pledged to strengthen mutually beneficial cooperation between the two countries during a meeting here in Senegal's capital.

The meeting was held ahead of the Eighth Ministerial Conference of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) scheduled for Nov 29-30.

Mozambique is an important partner of China in Africa. In recent years, political mutual trust between the two countries continues to deepen, and bilateral cooperation in various fields has achieved fruitful results. The Chinese and Mozambican people have looked out for each other and joined hands to fight against COVID-19, further enhancing the traditional friendship between the two sides, Wang said.

China attaches great importance to the development of China-Mozambique relations, and stands ready, under the guidance of the important consensus reached by the two heads of state and taking the meeting as an opportunity, to promote the comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership between the two countries to achieve greater development, said the senior Chinese diplomat.

He also said that with thanks to the joint efforts of the two sides, bilateral economic and trade cooperation has continued to grow despite the impact of the pandemic.

Wang stressed that China is ready to strengthen mutually beneficial cooperation with Mozambique in such areas as infrastructure, agriculture and energy under the frameworks of the joint construction of the Belt and Road, FOCAC and the Economic and Trade Forum between China and Portuguese-speaking countries to help Mozambique achieve faster development.

Macamo warmly congratulated the Communist Party of China on the centenary of its founding, noting that her country stands ready to strengthen party-to-party ties and exchanges on state governance with China.

She said that Mozambique and China enjoy a profound traditional friendship, and the two countries have always stood firmly together, adding that the Mozambican people are deeply grateful to China for helping Mozambique achieve independence, and that China's support made Mozambique highly confident in its future development.

The foreign minister stressed that Mozambique firmly adheres to the one-China policy and resolutely supports China to safeguard its core interests. She noted that Mozambique stands ready to strengthen strategic mutual trust, deepen mutually beneficial cooperation, and maintain solidarity and coordination on international affairs with China.

The two sides also expressed the will to jointly work for a complete success of the Eighth Ministerial Conference of FOCAC, so as to inject fresh impetus into China-Africa cooperation.