2016年CRI China, Nigeria Pledge Further Deepened Strategic Partnership（在线收听）

China, Nigeria Pledge Further Deepened Strategic Partnership

During his talks on Tuesday with Buhari, President Xi highlighted the significance of promoting their bilateral cooperation.

"Under the big environment of world multi-polarization and economic globalization, further deepening the Sino-Nigerian friendship and reciprocal cooperation is in the long-term interests of the two countries and peoples, and conducive to the peace, stability and development of Africa and the world."

President Xi said both sides should maintain a high-level of engagement, increase exchanges in all areas, strengthen strategic mutual trust and give each other understanding and support on issues of their core interests and major concerns.

He said China stands ready to expand bilateral cooperation in areas including agriculture, fisheries, oil refining, mineral exploitation, mechatronics, light industry, textile and processing.

He also said China is willing to help Nigeria solve the bottleneck of infrastructure, professionals and funds in developing industry and modern agriculture.

For his part, Buhari thanked China for its long-term assistance to Nigeria's infrastructure construction, and also expressed confidence that his country will be a good investment destination for Chinese enterprises.

"We are committed to protecting our lands and property within our borders; you can therefore be assured that your investment in Nigeria would be safe and secure. Already China's "go global" strategy has encouraged large influence of Chinese companies into Nigeria in recent times to take advantage of investment opportunities in various sectors of our economy, which is, therefore, my hope that our interactions here today would further enhance Nigeria-China business relations in a mutually beneficial manner. Welcome to Nigeria!"

Buhari said Nigeria was willing to implement cooperation deals reached with China, strengthen cooperation in areas such as agriculture, mining, infrastructure and resources.

After the talks, both leaders witnessed the signing of several deals of cooperation in infrastructure, production capacity, investment, aviation, technology and finance.

Lin Songtian, Director-General of the Department of African Affairs of China's Foreign Ministry, highlighted the importance of one of the deals concerning including China's currency Renminbi as Nigeria's foreign currency reserve.

"A framework agreement between financial institutions from both sides concerning currency swaps and the exchange of Renminbi between banks in Nigeria has now been reached. Once there's a demand from Nigerian market, China is ready to launch financial cooperation so as to meet their demand."

This is President Buhari's first state visit China. He is also due to visit China's Shanghai Municipality and south China's city of Guangzhou, before leaving on Friday.