China, Angola agree to promote ties as presidents meet in Beijing

BEIJING - Chinese President Xi Jinping held talks with visiting Angolan President Joao Lourenco in Beijing Tuesday, agreeing to continue developing bilateral ties.

Xi said he is glad to see the second visit to Beijing in about a month by Lourenco, who came to attend the 2018 Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) in early September.

Xi said the success of the summit has injected vigor and opportunities into the development of China-Africa and China-Angola ties, calling on the two sides to work together to actively and quickly promote the development of ties.

"China is confident of the future of bilateral cooperation," Xi said, urging the two sides to "cement political mutual trust, strengthen high-level contacts, deepen strategic communication, and understand and support each other's core interests and grave concerns."

Xi said that China has empathy with the historical experiences of African countries and firmly supports people of African countries in opposing foreign interference, and independently choosing their path of development.

Xi said he expects the two sides to implement the results of the 2018 Beijing Summit of the FOCAC, promote the eight major initiatives unveiled at the summit to realize early progress, and advance the Belt and Road Initiative.

The Chinese president called on the two sides to advance the strategic integration of each other's development plans, strengthen cooperation in traditional areas, expand new growth points in mutually beneficial cooperation, and promote the industrialization and economic diversification of Angola.

Xi also said it is necessary to expand people-to-people exchanges and exchanges between local areas.

He called for closer multilateral coordination, expecting the two sides to jointly safeguard multilateralism, build an open world economy and make the international order more just and equitable.

The Angolan president said that Angola and China have maintained close high-level exchanges, which shows the two sides attach great importance to the relations.

Noting that for a long time, bilateral cooperation has played a positive role in the economic and social development of Angola, Lourenco said that Angola looks forward to further strengthening bilateral cooperation in infrastructure construction and people's livelihood, to better promote Angola's development.

Lourenco said that the FOCAC has promoted cooperation between China and Africa as a whole, and that African countries highly appreciate China's cooperation with Africa "on the basis of Africa's actual needs and its taking tangible measures without attaching any political conditions or interference in African countries' internal affairs."

"The cooperation plans proposed by China within the framework of the FOCAC has a very positive impact on the development of African countries," Lourenco said.

"It is hoped that cooperation between Angola and China will become a model for Africa-China cooperation."

He said Angola values China's important influence in international affairs, and hailed China's constructive role in addressing hot-spot issues in Africa.

The Angolan president said that Angola supports multilateralism and advocates that the world's future should be decided by all countries, expressing the will to cooperate closely with China in multilateral affairs.

The two presidents also watched the signing of a series of bilateral cooperative documents.

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and China's top legislator Li Zhanshu also met with Lourenco Tuesday.