China and Ethiopia have forged a sincere friendship over the past 50 years and are seizing the opportunities to deepen their relations

Fifty years ago, New China's first premier Zhou Enlai visited Ethiopia during his maiden trip to Africa. He was warmly welcomed by the Ethiopian Government and people, and his visit started friendly relations between the two countries. Fifty years later, Chinese President Xi Jinping, during his first visit to Africa after he took office, made a point of arranging a meeting with Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Dessalegn. Chinese Premier Li Keqiang also chose Ethiopia as the start of his first trip to Africa. China and Ethiopia, indeed, attach great importance to the bilateral relations. They regard each other as offering priorities for strategic foreign policy choices.

Ethiopia and China are both heirs of ancient civilizations and 50 years are only a short period of time in our long histories, but the fruitful achievements of those years have forged China-Ethiopia relations our two peoples can be proud of and cherish.

In the past we have both suffered foreign invasion and shared the same feelings towards invaders. We both follow an independent foreign policy and share the belief that development is the top priority for national renaissance. We have provided mutual support on major issues concerning each other's core interests, and have shared ideas, learnt from each other's experiences of governance and explored the paths of development suitable for our respective national conditions. Indeed, on the basis of the principles of equality, mutual respect and win-win cooperation, China and Ethiopia have developed multi-dimensional relations, with people-to-people, business-to-business, government-to-government and party-to-party relations as the cornerstones of the relationship. We are sincere friends, reliable partners and good brothers who share both happiness and adversity, each rejoicing in the successes the other has achieved. In a nutshell, China-Ethiopian relations have become a real and excellent model for South-South Cooperation.

Since the establishment of diplomatic ties in 1970, and even more after the launch of their Comprehensive Cooperative Partnership in 2003, China-Ethiopia relations have developed rapidly, and they have reached a high qualitative level. The leaders of the two countries have established close working relations and a personal friendship. Last year, President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Hailemariam Dessalegn met twice on different occasions. Prime Minister Hailemariam paid a successful visit to China last year and there were also the visits of the Ethiopian Deputy Prime Minister to China and of two Chinese Vice-Premiers to Ethiopia. The fruitful official visit by Premier Li Keqiang to Ethiopia in May this year and the successful state visit by President Mulatu Teshome to China in July also injected strong momentum into the continued development of bilateral relations.