Chinese authorities are reported to be setting their eyes on President Muhammadu Buhari’s planned visit to Beijing during which the two countries are expected to agree on several trade arrangements including the building of a high speed railway network in Nigeria, the state visit is scheduled for the middle of this month.
The historic visit was agreed upon during the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (Focac) Johannesburg summit earlier this year, when President Buhari and Chinese Premier Xi Jinping met. On Tuesday, the Chinese ambassador to Nigeria, Gu Xiaojie, said a formal letter has now been dispatched to the office of the presidency and the state visit will take place this month.
He said President Buhari would be the first African head of state to visit China after the Focac summit, which is of great importance to both China-Nigeria and China-Africa relations. According to Mr Xiaojie, in April 2005, China and Nigeria declared the establishment of strategic partnership, which lifted the bilateral ties to a new high and sounded the clarion call to form an all-directional, multi-layered and wide-ranging cooperation.
: “Distance cannot separate true friends who feel so close even when they are thousands of miles apart. The China-Nigeria friendship has stood the test of time and became stronger and more vigorous despite the vast oceans between the two countries. Added Mr Xiaojie.
“On February 10, 1971, China and Nigeria established diplomatic relationships and ever since then, the bilateral relations have been developing smoothly and steadily. Since then, the pragmatic cooperation in various fields between the two countries have been leading in many ways in China’s cooperation with African countries, featuring fruitful achievements and exemplary highlights.”
Also, the ambassador noted that in recent years, China had witnessed frequent high-level exchanges between Nigeria and his country, saying the political mutual trust has been enhanced continuously. Mr Xiaojie said Nigeria remains China’s number engineering contract market, her number two export market, the number three trading partner and a major investment destination in Africa, as China has invested a total of over $2.5bn in Nigeria.
“In 2014, Chinese premier Li Keqiang, visited Nigeria and reached extensive consensus with Nigerian leaders. Last year, Chinese President Xi Jinping, met with Nigerian president twice, exchanged views on bilateral relations and issues of common concern, reached wide-ranging agreements and charted the direction of future development of China-Nigeria relations.
“Economically, the cooperation between China and Nigeria in various areas such as infrastructure, energy, trade and finance, has scored impressive achievements. Nigeria is the first African country to accept Chinese yuans in its foreign reserve and last year, the bilateral trade volume stood at $14.94bn, which represented 8.3% of the total trade volume between China and Africa, and 42% of the total trade volume between China and Ecowas countries,” Mr Xiaojie added.
