Senior officials from China and 48 African countries met in
Beijing on Wednesday, making final preparations for the upcoming
Beijing Summit scheduled for November 4-5.
The Senior Officials Meeting is the fifth in the framework of
the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC).
Opening the meeting, China's Assistant Foreign Minister Zhai Jun
said, "The two-day meeting will review the preparation work for the
Beijing Summit and the 3rd FOCAC Ministerial Conference."
"The meeting will also map out plans for China-Africa friendly
cooperation," Zhai said.
The summit, the largest and highest-level gathering of Chinese
and African leaders in China-Africa history, will propel
China-Africa friendship to a new high, Zhai said.
Haile-Kiros Gessesse, Ethiopia's special envoy to the FOCAC,
said at the opening ceremony that, with more than 50 years of
history, Sino-African relations have faced the test of time. Today
they are focused on the future. The basis for relations is sincere
friendship, equality, solidarity, cooperation and common
development.
He said the Senior Officials Meeting is expected to further
enrich the documents agreed at the special Senior Officials Meeting
held in Beijing during Sept. 17-18 this year.
The documents dealt with key cooperation issues in the
political, economic and social fields and also consultation and
cooperation between the two sides in international affairs, he
said.
The summit will focus on "friendship, peace, cooperation and
development."
FOCAC is a mechanism for collective dialogue and cooperation
jointly established by China and Africa to cope with new challenges
and facilitate common development.
Since the launch of the FOCAC in 2000, two ministerial
conferences have been held in Beijing and Addis Ababa.
(Xinhua News Agency November 1, 2006)