Egyptian president calls for strengthening coordination with China in int'l, regional affairs

Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi on Sunday called for strengthening Egypt's coordination with China in international and regional affairs, as well as further promoting the Arab-China and Africa-China cooperations.

Sisi made the remarks during his meeting with visiting Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang in Cairo, the capital of Egypt.

Sisi asked Qin to convey his sincere greetings to Chinese President Xi Jinping, while once again congratulating the successful convening of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in October last year.

China is a great country and its development is unstoppable, the Egyptian president said, adding that the friendship between Egypt and China has been historically "unbreakable."

Egypt will continue to firmly adhere to the one-China principle and resolutely oppose any interference in China's internal affairs by external forces, Sisi stressed.

Commending the fruitful results that Egypt and China have achieved in jointly advancing the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), Sisi said Chinese enterprises are welcome to invest and set up businesses in Egypt.

In light of China's recent optimization and adjustment of the COVID-19 prevention and control measures, Egypt warmly welcomes the Chinese people to visit as soon as possible, the Egyptian president said.

Qin, for his part, conveyed President Xi's cordial greetings and best wishes to Sisi, saying China and Egypt have supported each other and forged a profound friendship in the cause of pursuing development, promoting peace and safeguarding justice.

The two countries' heads of state have a high level of mutual trust and maintained close exchanges, giving a strong impetus to the development of the comprehensive strategic partnership between China and Egypt, Qin said.

China highly appreciates Egypt's reaffirmation of firmly adhering to the one-China principle and likewise supports Egypt in taking a development path that suits its own national conditions and safeguarding its sovereignty, security and development interests, he noted.

Qin said he looked forward to closely aligning the two countries' respective development strategies, speeding up the building of key cooperation projects, and achieving more results in the BRI construction as well as the implementation of the China-Arab States Summit's outcome in Egypt.

Expressing China's support to Egypt's positive role in promoting peace and stability in the Middle East, he said that China is willing to work with Egypt to jointly promote long-term peace and stability in the region and push for an early and just settlement of the Palestinian issue.

Qin later held talks with Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry, during which the two sides spoke highly of the exemplary role and strategic significance of the China-Egypt solidarity and cooperation.

The two ministers vowed to jointly implement the important consensus reached by the two heads of state, continuously improve bilateral relations, strengthen multilateral coordination, jointly safeguard the basic norms of international relations, and defend international fairness and justice.