Visiting President Hu Jintao and his Liberian counterpart Ellen
Johnson-Sirleaf met in Monrovia on Thursday for talks on
consolidating their friendship and cooperation between China and
the West African state.
Soon after his arrival, Hu and Johnson-Sirleaf started their
talks, during which they are expected to discuss the development of
closer bilateral ties and exchange views on issues of common
concern.
During his one-day stay in Monrovia, President Hu is expected to
attend the inauguration of a malaria prevention and treatment
center.
China announced at the Beijing Summit of the Forum on
China-Africa Cooperation last November that over the next three
years, it will build 30 hospitals in Africa and provide 300 million
RMB (about US$38.5 million) in grants to provide artemisinin and
build 30 malaria prevention and treatment centers to fight malaria
in Africa.
President Hu is also expected to meet representatives of Chinese
peacekeepers in the UN peacekeeping operation in Liberia.
Since 1990, China has sent 5,915 military personnel to
participate in 16 UN peacekeeping operations, according to a white
paper titled "China's National Defense in 2006" which was issued by
the Information Office of China's State Council last December.
China has played a more active role in UN peacekeeping
operations since 2003, sending peacekeeping forces to UN missions
in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Liberia and Sudan.
In a written statement issued upon his arrival at the airport
earlier in the day, President Hu said that in recent years, thanks
to the joint efforts of both sides, China-Liberia relations have
grown fast and the cooperation in various fields have resumed and
yielded marked results.
"This is my first visit to Liberia. I am here to deepen the
traditional friendship, enhance mutual understanding and trust and
expand mutually beneficial and pragmatic cooperation to further
develop China's relations with Liberia," he said.
President Hu, who arrived here from Yaounde, the capital of
Cameroon, is on an eight-nation tour of Africa that will also take
him to Sudan, Zambia, Namibia, South Africa, Mozambique and
Seychelles.
In Yaounde, the Chinese president held talks with Cameroon's
President Paul Biya on Wednesday to exchange views on further
developing China-Cameroon friendly relations of cooperation, and
implementing the the measures taken at the Beijing Summit of the
Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC).
The two sides signed a series of agreements covering
inter-governmental economic and technological cooperation and
China's write-off of debts owed by Cameroon.
China and Cameroon are willing to further strengthen mutual
political trust and expand cooperation in various fields, according
to a joint communiqué issued on Wednesday.
Earlier, the Chinese president described his Africa trip as "a
journey of friendship and cooperation."
He said his current visit to Africa is aimed at consolidating
the traditional friendship between China and Africa, implementing
the agreements reached at the Beijing Summit of the Forum on
China-Africa Cooperation last November, enlarging substantial
cooperation and promoting common development.
(Xinhua News Agency February 2, 2007)
