Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji on Tuesday hailed the time-honored
friendship between China and Morocco and pledged to advance
bilateral ties in the future.
During talks with his Moroccan counterpart, Abderrahmane Youssoufi,
Zhu said China and Morocco enjoy a long history of friendly
exchanges, and have sympathized with and supported each other in
their struggles for national independence and liberation decades
ago.
Political ties between the two sides have been healthy since the
establishment of diplomatic ties 44 years ago while cooperation in
economics, trade, culture, education and health have been fruitful,
Zhu said.
Recalling Chinese President Jiang Zemin's visit to Morocco in
October 1999 and the return visit by Moroccan King Mohammed VI last
February, Zhu said the two leaders have pointed out the way for
further development of Sino-Moroccan ties.
The Chinese government is grateful for Morocco's consistent support
for China on the issues of Taiwan and human rights as well as
Shanghai's bid for World Expo 2010, Zhu said.
He
said both China and Morocco have aspirations to expand political
exchanges and economic cooperation between them and share the same
goal of promoting South-South cooperation and working for the
establishment of a new political and economic world order.
Zhu said bilateral economic and trade cooperation has made progress
in recent years and cooperation in fisheries serves as a model of
mutually beneficial cooperation.
The premier said China's entry into the World Trade Organization
has opened new prospects for cooperation. He said China encourages
exchanges and cooperation between the businesses of the two
countries.
On
China's relations with Africa as a whole, Zhu said China and the
vast majority of African countries have profound friendship and
good cooperation and have always supported each other in
international affairs.
Zhu said Sino-African cooperation has entered a new stage since the
first ministerial meeting of the China-Africa Cooperation Forum in
October 2000. As promised at the meeting, China has remitted 10
billion RMB yuan (about US$1.2 billion) of African debts, Zhu said,
adding that China will explore new ways of economic and trade
cooperation with Africa on the basis of equality and mutual
benefit.
Following the talks, the two sides signed five documents on
cooperation in economics, technology and culture.
Morocco is the second leg of Zhu's four-nation African tour. After
his visit to Algeria, Morocco and Cameroon, he will travel to South
Africa for the Earth Summit in Johannesburg.
(Xinhua News
Agency August 28, 2002)