On January 10, 2017, Foreign Minister Wang Yi held talks with Minister of Foreign Affairs, Cooperation and Congolese Nationals Abroad Jean-Claude Gakosso of the Republic of Congo in Brazzaville.Wang Yi said that China and the Republic of Congo enjoy time-honored friendship. The two countries always understand, support and help each other, and bilateral cooperation is a model of China-Africa cooperation and South-South cooperation. Last year, President Xi Jinping and President Denis Sassou-Nguesso jointly elevated bilateral relations to a comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership, and President Xi Jinping also announced to list the Republic of Congo as a demonstration and pioneering country for China-Africa production capacity cooperation. Bilateral practical cooperation has entered into a fast track. China has become an important participator and contributor in the Republic of Congo's industrialization and economic diversification.Wang Yi expressed that 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 outcomes. The country should give full play to its advantage as a demonstration and pioneering country for China-Africa production capacity cooperation, forge the special economic zone in Pointe-Noire into a flagship project for China-Africa production capacity cooperation as well as a model project for intensive development in Africa, and build four sub-regional centers covering logistics, manufacturing, aviation and capacity building. Through the building of the "1+4 cooperation framework", bilateral strategic cooperative partnership could be effectively implemented.Wang Yi noted that it is an important consensus reached by both heads of state to build the special economic zone in Pointe-Noire, and it, based on the country's national conditions, aims at making use of the Republic of Congo's advantages in natural resources, opening policy and stable political situation to explore new ways for China-Africa mutually beneficial cooperation. The special economic zone in Pointe-Noire is a significant practice of drawing from China's experience in reform and opening up, an important embodiment of the transformation and upgrade of China-Africa cooperation as well as an important attempt by China to support Africa's self-development. The construction of the special economic zone in Pointe-Noire should adhere to the principles of government support, legislative protection, leading role of businesses, market operation, infrastructure as priority and human resource support.Jean-Claude Gakosso agreed with Wang Yi's evaluation on bilateral relations, and expressed that China is the most sincere friend and reliable partner of the Republic of Congo. In recent years, bilateral strategic cooperative partnership has enjoyed rapid development and cooperation in various fields has undergone constant changes. China has been the largest trade partner, the largest project contractor and main investment source country of the Republic of Congo for consecutive years. Fully agreeing with China's concepts and visions on further deepening bilateral cooperation in the next stage, the Republic of Congo applauds the "1+4 cooperation framework" tailored by the Chinese side for the country. The special economic zone in Pointe-Noire is the most important and iconic project in bilateral cooperation. It is hoped that China could help the county to accelerate the construction process and push the special economic zone for early results, so as to benefit the general public in the Republic of Congo. The Republic of Congo will take effective measures to safeguard the property safety and legitimate rights and interests of Chinese personnel in the country, firmly support China's stance on the Taiwan issue, the South China Sea issue and other issues, and staunchly back China's efforts in safeguarding national sovereignty and territorial integrity.The two Foreign Ministers also exchanged views on international and regional topics of common concern, and agreed to further enhance communication and coordination between both sides on the UN Security Council reform, climate change and other international affairs, so as to safeguard the common interests of both countries as well as the legitimate rights and interests of developing countries.After the talks, the two Foreign Ministers also jointly met the press.Distributed by APO on behalf of Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China.Media filesDownload logo
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