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| Arab League Chief Highly Values FOCAC |
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Arab League (AL) Secretary General Amr Moussa said on Thursday that the China-Africa and China-Arab cooperation forums were "necessary and instrumental mechanisms" for boosting African and Arab cooperation with China. The AL chief made the remarks in a written interview with Xinhua on the eve of a summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) in Beijing. For one thing, FOCAC has helped the two sides raise the two-way trade volume, which increased from US$10 billion in 2000 to nearly US$440 billion in 2005, said Moussa. Of the 22 member states of the Cairo-based AL, 10 are located in North Africa. They are Algeria, Comoros, Djibouti, Egypt, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Somalia, Sudan and Tunisia. Moussa said the upcoming summit will focus on the issues of friendship, peace, cooperation and development. The leaders of China and Africa will discuss the achievements of the China-Africa cooperation in the past 50 years, and both sides will adopt a plan to enhance cooperation in various fields, he added. The secretary general praised China for its efforts to strengthen the cooperation between Africa and China. "China is also taking some measures (to improve China-Africa cooperation), such as publishing African products catalogue and supporting African individual businesses in getting training from their Chinese counterparts and experts," he said. Moussa also hailed the idea of developing a new type of African-Chinese strategic partnership, initiated by Chinese President Hu Jintao, saying Hu's proposal was "a recipe for a successful relationship between nations." During his visit to Nigeria in April, Hu put forward the proposal when addressing the country's National Assembly in Abuja. Hu's proposal contained such key points as strengthening political mutual trust, expanding win-win economic cooperation, increasing cultural interaction, enhancing security cooperation, and maintaining close coordination in international affairs among China and African nations. Moussa said President Hu mentioned these points during their talks in Beijing in May when China hosted the second ministerial meeting of the China-Arab Cooperation Forum. "Should these guidelines be faithfully and systematically pursued, I believe that African and Arab cooperation with China could make the progress that we hope to achieve," he said. Commenting on China-Arab Cooperation Forum, Moussa said much had been achieved since the forum was formed in 2004. "But the potential is huge and we have great ambitions for these relations," he said. "The Sino-Arab cooperation is a good example for the South-South cooperation that we have been advocating for so many years," said Moussa. (Xinhua News Agency October 19, 2006)
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