China, Mauritania to expand cooperation

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2006-11-04 20:52

BEIJING, November 4 -- China will deepen cooperation with Mauritania in telecommunication, science and technology and human resources to seek common development, Chinese President Hu Jintao said here Saturday afternoon.

Hu said, during his meeting with Ely Ould Mohammed Vall, Head of State and Chairman of the Military Council for Justice and Democracy of Mauritania, that China hoped to work with the African country to expand political trust.

China and the country to the west of Sahara have achieved substantial progress in cooperation in fishery, farming, infrastructure facility construction and medical care. "Friendship has stricken root in the hearts of the two peoples," Hu said.

Vall said the bilateral cooperation has maintained good momentum and his country hopes to explore more ways to make full advantages of each other's competence and achieve common prosperity.

Vall was here to attend the Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) opened on Saturday with a theme of "friendship, peace, cooperation and development".

The FOCAC is a mechanism for collective dialogue and cooperation jointly established by China and Africa to cope with new challenges and facilitate common development.

Since the FOCAC launch in 2000, three ministerial conferences have been held in Beijing and Addis Ababa, with an action plan discussed and passed, laying out cooperation programs between China and Africa from 2007 to 2009 under the FOCAC framework.