President Denis Sassou Nguesso of the Republic of Congo Meets with Wang Yi

On January 10, 2017, President Denis Sassou-N'guesso of the Republic of Congo met with Foreign Minister Wang Yi at the presidential palace in Brazzaville.

Denis Sassou-Nguesso said that the friendship between the Republic of Congo and China has lasted for 50 years, endured the test of time and international vicissitudes, and remained even firmer as time goes by. During his visit to China last year, he made the historic decision with President Xi Jinping to elevate bilateral relations to a comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership. The Republic of Congo admires and appreciates China's strong support for the country's development and hopes that China will succeed in its projects here. Due to the fluctuation in the international market, the Republic of Congo's economy is currently facing some difficulties, but the country's resolution to deepen cooperation with China and to honor its commitment to China remain unchanged. On issues of Taiwan, the South China Sea and others involving China's sovereignty and territorial integrity, the Republic of Congo firmly supports China's rightful positions. It is hoped and believed that under the leadership of President Xi Jinping, China will continue to make new progress on the path of national building and further improve its status in the international arena. Denis Sassou-Nguesso asked Wang Yi to convey his most sincere greetings to President Xi Jinping.

Wang Yi first conveyed President Xi Jinping's warm regards to Denis Sassou-Nguesso. Wang Yi said that the two countries are sincere friends and reliable partners who understand each other, support each other and help each other. The all-round cooperation between the two countries has been deepening in recent years. The current economic difficulties the Republic of Congo facing are temporary. It is believed that under the leadership of President Denis Sassou-Nguesso, these difficulties will surely be overcome. The Chinese side has full confidence in the Republic of Congo's development prospects and the future of bilateral cooperation. China proposes to speed up the transformation of political mutual trust into the impetus for mutually beneficial cooperation and translate the Republic of Congo's resource advantage into economic development achievements. Both sides should give full play to the Republic of Congo's advantage of being a demonstration and pioneering country for China-Africa production capacity cooperation, develop the special economic zone at Pointe-Noire into a flagship project of China-Africa cooperation in production capacity and a model project of the intensive development of Africa, and build four sub-regional centers of logistics, manufacturing, aviation and capacity-building in the Republic of Congo. By building this "1+4 cooperation framework", bilateral strategic cooperative partnership could be effectively implemented.

Distributed by APO on behalf of Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China.