Guinea Bissau is grateful for China's support and will continue to adhere to the one-China policy and back China's reunification cause, Guinea Bissau President Joao Bernardo Vieira said on Wednesday.

 

According to reports reaching Dakar from Bissau, the capital of Guinea Bissau, Vieira made the remarks in a meeting with visiting Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing.

 

During the meeting, Vieira recalled his state visit to China and participation in the Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation two months ago.

 

The Guinea Bissau-China friendship started in the years when Guinea Bissau strove for its independence, said Vieira. In the years that followed, China has offered valuable support to Guinea Bissau, he said.

 

Li said that China has always attached great importance to its relations of friendship and cooperation with Guinea Bissau. Exchanges of high-level visits between the two have been frequent since Vieira took office, he said.

 

Cooperation between the two countries also has been fruitful in the fields of agriculture, health and infrastructure, he added.

 

Li said that China appreciates Guinea Bissau's adherence to the one-China policy and thanks the Guinea Bissau congress for its adoption of a resolution last year which pledges commitment to the one China policy and support for China's reunification.

 

China is willing to join hands with Guinea Bissau to push the friendship between the two countries to a new high, Li said.

 

Also on the day, Li held talks with Guinea Bissau's Parliament Speaker Francisco Benante, Prime Minister Aristides Gomes and Foreign Minister Antonio Issac Monteiro.

 

Li arrived in Guinea Bissau after concluding his visit to Beninand Equatorial Guinea, on a seven-nation African tour which will also take him to Chad, the Central African Republic, Eritrea and Botswana.

 

(Xinhua News Agency January 4, 2007)