Senior officials from China and 48 African countries met in Beijing on Wednesday, making final preparations for the upcoming Beijing Summit scheduled for November 4-5.

 

The Senior Officials Meeting is the fifth in the framework of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC).

 

Opening the meeting, China's Assistant Foreign Minister Zhai Jun said, "The two-day meeting will review the preparation work for the Beijing Summit and the 3rd FOCAC Ministerial Conference."

 

"The meeting will also map out plans for China-Africa friendly cooperation," Zhai said.

 

The summit, the largest and highest-level gathering of Chinese and African leaders in China-Africa history, will propel China-Africa friendship to a new high, Zhai said.

 

Haile-Kiros Gessesse, Ethiopia's special envoy to the FOCAC, said at the opening ceremony that, with more than 50 years of history, Sino-African relations have faced the test of time. Today they are focused on the future. The basis for relations is sincere friendship, equality, solidarity, cooperation and common development.

 

He said the Senior Officials Meeting is expected to further enrich the documents agreed at the special Senior Officials Meeting held in Beijing during Sept. 17-18 this year.

 

The documents dealt with key cooperation issues in the political, economic and social fields and also consultation and cooperation between the two sides in international affairs, he said.

 

The summit will focus on "friendship, peace, cooperation and development."

 

FOCAC is a mechanism for collective dialogue and cooperation jointly established by China and Africa to cope with new challenges and facilitate common development.

 

Since the launch of the FOCAC in 2000, two ministerial conferences have been held in Beijing and Addis Ababa.

 

(Xinhua News Agency November 1, 2006)