As the largest developing country in the world, China has always placed a priority on its relations of friendship and cooperation with other Asian, African and Latin American developing countries. In 2002, China attended a series of significant international meetings focusing on development, including the World Summit for Sustainable Development and the International Funds-Raising Meeting. China’s strategic proposals for setting up a fair and reasonable new international economic order to address the problem of development were well received by the international community. In 2002, Chinese governmental leaders visited many developing countries. In April, President Jiang Zemin paid state visits to Libya, Nigeria, Tunisia and Iran. In April and from the end of August to early September, Premier Zhu Rongji paid formal visits to Turkey, Egypt, Kenya, Algeria, Morocco, and Cameroon, went on a working visit to South Africa, and attended the UN World Summit of Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, South Africa. China played an active role in peace talks on the Middle East, dispatching special envoys to the area in an effort that was welcomed both by countries in the region and by the international community as a whole. In 2002, President Amani Abeid Karume of Zanzibar of the United Republic of Tanzania visited China as did Prime Minister Pascoal Manuel Mocumbi of the Republic of Mozambique. At the beginning of 2003, Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan visited the four African countries of Mauritius, Botswana, the Republic of the Congo and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
