Vice Foreign Minister Zhang Ming meets with Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn Boshe (right)
On January 28, 2016, Special Envoy of the Chinese Government and Vice Foreign Minister Zhang Ming met with Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn Boshe of Ethiopia during his attendance at the 26th African Union (AU) Summit in Addis Ababa, capital of Ethiopia and his visit to Ethiopia. The two sides had in-depth exchange of views on deepening the comprehensive cooperative partnership between China and Ethiopia in the new period, materializing the results of the Johannesburg Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) as well as international and regional issues of common concern.
Zhang Ming said that although China and Ethiopia are far apart, the friendship between the two countries becomes even firmer as time goes by and strikes roots in the hearts of the two peoples. Since the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Ethiopia 46 years ago, especially the establishment of comprehensive cooperative partnership 13 years ago, the two sides have continuously deepened political mutual trust, achieved fruitful results in various fields such as economy and trade as well as people-to-people and cultural exchanges, and collaborated closely in international and regional affairs. China has ranked Ethiopia as the pilot country of China-Africa production capacity cooperation. The Addis Ababa-Djibouti Railway financed and constructed by China is almost completed, making the early fruit of the "Three Networks and One Industrialization Cooperation" between China and Africa. China-Ethiopia cooperation can be regarded as a model of South-South cooperation, playing a leading and exemplary role in China-Africa cooperation. In December last year, the Johannesburg Summit of the FOCAC was successfully held, which provided strong impetus to the development of China-Africa relations. Guided by the important consensus reached by the leaders of the two countries and based on implementing the results of the Johannesburg Summit, China is willing to work with Ethiopia to comprehensively expand and deepen their friendly and mutually beneficial cooperation in all fields and push bilateral relations to new levels so as to bring more benefits to the two countries and peoples.
Hailemariam Desalegn Boshe said that China is a good friend, good partner and good brother of Ethiopia and Ethiopia sincerely appreciates China's important contributions to its economic and social development. Ethiopia attaches great importance to the development of Ethiopia-China relations and expects to be a priority country for China to carry out international production capacity cooperation. Ethiopia is willing to, together with China, enhance communication and connection, implement the outcome of the Johannesburg Summit, and firmly push forward their practical cooperation in areas including infrastructure construction, energy resources exploitation, industrial production capacity, and industrial park development, so as to promote Ethiopia-China relations for greater development.
On the same day, Zhang Ming also met with State Minister for Foreign Affairs Taye Aske-Silassie of Ethiopia.
During his visit, Vice Foreign Minister Zhang Ming also gave interviews to mainstream media at home and abroad such as the Ethiopian Broadcasting Corporation (EBC), Xinhua News Agency and CCTV.