China, Egypt agree to maintain mutual support, strengthen cooperation

CAIRO, Jan. 16 (Xinhua) -- China and Egypt have agreed to maintain mutual support, strengthen cooperation in various fields and deepen coordination in regional and international affairs, visiting Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang told the press here Sunday.

Qin said that, during his visit to Egypt, the two sides had in-depth exchanges on implementing the important consensuses reached by the heads of state of the two countries, and reached broad consensus on bilateral relations and regional and international issues of common concerns.

China-Egypt traditional friendship and comprehensive strategic partnership are of high quality. In recent years, China-Egypt relations have achieved leapfrog development under the strategic guidance of President Xi Jinping and President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi. Especially during the past three years, China and Egypt have strengthened their comprehensive strategic partnership by working together to fight the pandemic and helping each other, he said.

During this visit, both sides agreed that China and Egypt have solid strategic mutual trust and should continue to firmly support each other on issues concerning each other's core interests and major concerns. China thanks Egypt for its valuable support on issues concerning China's core interests such as Taiwan and Xinjiang-related issues, firmly supports Egypt in pursuing a development path suited to its national conditions, and supports Egypt in safeguarding national sovereignty and security and achieving development and revitalization, Qin said.

Both sides agreed that the Belt and Road cooperation between China and Egypt has yielded fruitful results and enjoys huge potential. China is ready to further synergize its development strategies with Egypt and jointly implement the Global Development Initiative. China is ready to work with Egypt to promote major projects, import more quality Egyptian products, and encourage more Chinese companies to invest and do business in Egypt to achieve greater mutual benefit and win-win results, he said.

Qin said the two sides agreed that China and Egypt, with their profound civilizations, should continue to expand cultural and people-to-people exchanges, actively promote exchanges between their think tanks, youth and media, and build a deeper people-to-people bond.

Recently, China has optimized and adjusted its prevention and control measures in light of the changing situation of the pandemic, which will facilitate people-to-people exchanges between China and other countries. China appreciates Egypt welcoming Chinese tourists and believes that in the near future, the number of Chinese tourists and flights to Egypt will return to or even exceed the pre-pandemic level, Qin said.

The two sides agreed that China and Egypt share similar views and positions in regional and international affairs and need to work more closely to jointly promote the political settlement of regional hotspot issues, safeguard the basic norms governing international relations, safeguard the principle of non-interference in other countries' internal affairs and safeguard the common interests of developing countries, he said.