On June 21, 2017 local time, Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn of Ethiopia met in Addis Ababa with Foreign Minister Wang Yi, who was on an official visit to Ethiopia.
Wang Yi noted that under the leadership of the two countries, China-Ethiopia relations have enjoyed a comprehensive and rapid development, scoring three new heights in succession in recent years: Ethiopia has been listed as a pilot and demonstration country of China-Africa cooperation in production capacity, which has yielded remarkable fruits and exerted positive demonstration effects. Furthermore, Ethiopia has become the close cooperation partner of the joint construction of the "Belt and Road". Both countries have docked development strategies, ushering new prospects in mutually beneficial cooperation. Now, relations between the two countries have been raised to the comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership with clear goals for both sides to fight together in the future.
Wang Yi expressed that what is important at present is to put the comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership into practice. For this purpose, China is willing to give priority to deepening bilateral cooperation in the following six fields. First, conduct exchange of experiences in state governance and administration, support Ethiopia in choosing its development path based on its own national conditions, and support each other on issues related to respective core interests; second, enhance security cooperation and support Ethiopia in improving its capacity of counter-terrorism and maintaining security and stability; third, advance production capacity cooperation and help Ethiopia accelerate industrialization process to realize independent and sustainable development; fourth, strengthen cooperation in human resources to transfer Ethiopia's abundant human resources into talents for its modernization; fifth, strengthen cooperation in emerging fields such as aviation, build building regional aviation hubs and advance personnel exchanges; sixth, enhance communication and coordination on international and regional issues to safeguard the common interests of both sides and developing countries.
Hailemariam Desalegn warmly congratulated on the successful holding of the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation and fruitful achievements of the forum. The speech delivered by President Xi Jinping at the forum is extremely important, which provides a Chinese plan for tackling development problems facing various countries. He will instruct all departments of Ethiopia to study the speech comprehensively and work out new fields and measures of cooperation in detail after returning to Ethiopia. The country is also willing to hold further discussions with relevant departments of China as soon as possible. Ethiopia hopes to take the joint construction of the "Belt and Road" as an opportunity to accelerate the transformation and upgrading of its economy. Ethiopia is privileged to be China's comprehensive strategic cooperative partner, which injects important impetus into the development of bilateral relations. Appreciating China's long-term support and assistance, Ethiopia completely agreed on the six priority areas of cooperation proposed by China, and will enhance internal coordination, and work with China to promote positive results from these priority areas of cooperation one by one at an early date.