BEIJING, June 27 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Premier Li Qiang met with Prime Minister of Senegal Ousmane Sonko in Beijing on Friday.

Li said over the years, China and Senegal have respected each other, treated each other as equals, and carried out mutually beneficial cooperation in a sincere and friendly manner, achieving fruitful results.

China is willing to enhance solidarity and cooperation with Senegal, continue two-way support, expand practical cooperation, and firmly walk hand in hand on the road to modernization, he said.

Li noted that China stands ready to strengthen the docking of development strategies with Senegal, promote the quality and efficiency of cooperation in various fields, and continuously enhance the internal impetus for development.

He called on both sides to make good use of trade and investment facilitation measures, expand the scale of bilateral trade, and explore cooperation potential in areas such as agricultural product processing, industrial parks, new energy, digital economy and information security.

China encourages Chinese enterprises to invest and start businesses in Senegal, welcomes Senegalese enterprises making good use of platforms such as the China International Import Expo to enhance the promotion of their products in the Chinese market, Li said.

Noting that 2026 is the China-Africa Year of People-to-People Exchanges, Li said China is willing to work with Senegal to successfully hold a series of activities, deepen exchanges in culture, media, and think tanks and better promote mutual understanding and friendship between the two peoples.

Sonko said Senegal admires the tremendous achievements made in China's economic and social development and sincerely appreciates China for the vigorous assistance it has provided to Senegal over a long period of time.

Senegal is willing to maintain close high-level exchanges with China, promote cooperation on economy and trade, energy and mineral resources, finance, and agriculture under the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative, and deepen people-to-people exchanges, Sonko said.

Sonko said Senegal looks forward to working with China to strengthen multilateral communication and cooperation, safeguard multilateralism and international fairness and justice, and protect the common interests of the Global South. Enditem