China-Africa cooperation fruitful over past 50 years

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2006-11-01 08:42

BEIJING - This year marks the 50th anniversary of the inauguration of diplomatic relations between China and African countries. Over the past 50 years, China and Africa have become all-weather friends, partners of sincere cooperation, and good brothers, with the two peoples forging a profound relationship, and bilateral ties achieving great successes.

The Beijing summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), scheduled for November 3-5, will be the highest-level and the largest meeting between Chinese and African leaders since China and African countries started to forge cooperative ties in the 1950s.

Over the past five decades, the relations between China and African countries have become closer and closer, with the two sides understanding, supporting and helping each other. Forty-eight out of the continent's 53 countries have established diplomatic ties with China so far.

Since late Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai's three visits to Africa in the 1960s, there have been over 800 exchanges of visits between senior Chinese and African leaders.

In the first half of this year, Chinese President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao paid friendly visits to 10 African countries, injecting new dynamism into the China-Africa relations.

China and Africa have shared comprehensive consensus, common interests, and a willingness to further enhance and deepen their cooperation on many of issues. Frequent high-level reciprocal visits have promoted mutual understanding and trust, and have effectively boosted the all-around, healthy development of bilateral ties.

The Chinese government issued its African Policy Paper in January this year, presenting to the world the objectives of China's policy toward Africa and the measures to achieve them.

In the document, China elaborated its definite objective and firm belief in carrying forward their traditional friendship, and in developing a new type of strategic partnership with Africa under new circumstances, which elicited an enthusiastic response among African nations.

Since the FOCAC was established in 2000, economic and trade cooperation between China and Africa has entered a new era, with comprehensive, rapid and stable development. Two-way trade volume rocketed to 39.7 billion US dollars in 2005 after breaking the mark of 10 billion dollars in 2000.

In addition, China has forgiven debts of 10.9 billion yuan (US$1.38 billion) by 31 heavily indebted poor countries and least developed countries in Africa and extended zero-tariff treatment to some imports to China.

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