Chinese President Xi Jinping met with Malawian President Lazarus Chakwera, who is in China for the 2024 Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, on Tuesday in Beijing.
The two leaders jointly announced the elevation of bilateral ties to a strategic partnership.
Xi pointed out that since the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Malawi, the two countries have seen steady and healthy development of their relations, with solid political mutual trust and fruitful results in mutually beneficial cooperation.
China stands ready to deepen the friendly cooperation with Malawi from the new starting point to promote common development and benefit their people, Xi said.
Xi stressed that China supports Malawi in exploring a development path in line with its own national conditions and is willing to share development opportunities brought by Chinese modernization and help Malawi’s national development and construction.
He added that China is willing to strengthen cooperation with Malawi in agriculture, telecommunications, infrastructure and other fields and encourages Chinese enterprises to invest in Malawi.
Xi called for making use of the Confucius Institute at the University of Malawi to promote cultural and people-to-people exchanges.
The Chinese president added that China is also willing to strengthen coordination and cooperation with Malawi in international affairs to safeguard the common interests of developing countries.
Chakwera told Xi that Malawi regards China as its most sincere friend.
Malawi firmly adheres to the one-China policy and supports China in safeguarding its core interests, he noted.
Malawi supports strengthening the mechanism of the 2024 FOCAC summit, and looks forward to taking the summit as an opportunity to continue to promote cooperation in building the Belt and Road Initiative, strengthen regional connectivity and deepen the friendly and mutually beneficial cooperation between the two sides, Chakwera added.