China, Egypt vow to enhance strategic cooperation

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-06-16 11:20

CAIRO -- China and Egypt on Monday vowed to flesh out their strategic cooperation.

The pledge was jointly made by China's anti-graft chief He Guoqiang and Egyptian Minister of International Cooperation Fayza Abul Naga in their meeting Monday morning.

The meeting came at the end of the three-day Egypt visit of He, member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee.

China-Egypt relations, which have a long history, are becoming more comprehensive and substantive, He told Naga, citing bilateral fruitful cooperation in various fields.

Egypt ranks as China's fifth trade partner in Africa, with bilateral trade volume hitting US$6.2 billion in 2008.

As global financial crisis is spreading, He called on both countries to step up reciprocal cooperation so as to jointly cope with the crisis and enhance the China-Egypt strategic cooperation.

Naga said Egypt-China relations were a genuine wide-ranging strategic cooperation that covers industry, agriculture, transportation, health, technology training and education.

She said Egypt-China cooperation plays an important part in China's cooperation with Arabian and African countries and has a bright future.

The Egyptian minister said her country would like to make new contribution to bolstering China's relation with not only Egypt, but also other Arabian and African countries.

As Egypt has confirmed to participate in the 2010 World Expo to be held in China's financial hub of Shanghai, He said China would like to help Egypt prepare for the exposition.

He left Cairo Monday to continue his visit to Spain. The fortnight-trip will also take him to Jordan and Mongolia.