President Xi Jinping called on Saturday for building a high-level China-Africa community with a shared future, as the development of Sino-African relations continues to gather momentum.

Xi made the remark in his congratulatory message to the 36th African Union Summit, held at the AU headquarters in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia. The two-day summit, which concluded on Sunday, was attended by African leaders, United Nations officials and top representatives of various international organizations.

Congratulating African nations and their people on the opening of the summit, Xi said the AU, in the past year, united and led countries on the continent to stand up to global challenges, accelerate the development of the African Continental Free Trade Area and play an important role in mediating hot issues in Africa, boosting its international status and influence.

He also expressed his sincere hope for African countries and their people to achieve greater success on their path of development and revitalization.

Sino-African relations maintained sound development momentum in 2022, Xi noted, adding that the cooperation between China and Africa is moving steadily forward in an all-around, multitiered and high-quality fashion, which takes the lead in international collaboration with Africa.

The president emphasized that he is willing to work with African leaders to further enhance friendly cooperation and facilitate coordination in international and regional affairs, and advance the building of a high-level China-Africa community with a shared future.

Traditional friendship and pragmatic cooperation between China and Africa have been deepening over the years under the framework of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation and other multilateral platforms.

China has been the largest trade partner of Africa for 13 consecutive years, with bilateral trade volume reaching more than $282 billion in 2022.