Nigeria and China have reaffirmed their commitment to strengthening relationship during the visit of China’s Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs, Chen Xiao Doing to Nigeria. Nigeria’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Yusuf Maitama Tuggar, stated this while welcoming the Chinese Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs.
According to Tuggar, “the visit of the Chinese Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs is reaffirming and consolidating some of the gains of the recent activities between Nigeria and China. It would be recalled that not long ago, I myself and some of the Directors here visited China for our engagements, and, of course, we have the upcoming FOCAC in Beijing.
Mr. President will be visiting Beijing,not only for FOCAC but also for his own visit with the President of China, Xi Jinping. Again, these are activities under the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration that further reaffirms Nigeria’s commitment to the relations with China and further strengthens ties that we hope in the nearest future we will have development that will even bring the two nations together.
Nigeria continues to maintain its commitment to a one China Policy, and we are also happy to see China’s continued commitment to the unity of the ECOWAS region and ultimately the creation of the African continental free trade area which is well on its way.
The partnership between Nigeria and China is one that is very important because Nigeria is the largest country on the continent in terms of GDP, in terms of population, and Nigeria remains an entry point into Africa and African Market and of course China is the most populous country in the world.
It is a world leader, and the two are committed to free trade, to the removal of any trade barriers, to the removal of any protectionist measures, and will continue to do so because, we are both trading nations. Nigeria itself was created out of two great African rivers, so the very definition and expression of Nigeria’s nationhood is tied to economic activities. It is tied to trade, and it is tied to the diversity that exists in Nigeria and Africa. “
In his response, the Chinese Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs conveyed the heartfelt greetings of the Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs, Wang Yi to Amb. Tuggar. He further recalled the visit of Amb Tuggar to China and noted that the China-Nigeria intergovernmental committee has reached a great number of consensus, laying foundations for the two countries to consolidate mutual trust and provide cooperation going forward. He stated that Nigeria is a major country in Africa and is also one of China’s key strategic partners in Africa.
According to him, China attaches great importance to growing relations with Nigeria and is ready to work with Nigeria to take the FOCAC and other areas of cooperation as an opportunity to work towards the new progress of th bilateral cooperation between Nigeria and China to the benefit of the two people.
His words: “Through our visit this time, I look forward to further communicating with Nigeria’s Foreign Affairs Minister on the implementation of the important consensus reached at the first meeting of the China-Nigeria intergovernmental Committee. Although it is not long ago you paid a visit to China but during such a short period of time, we have reached some progress.
One of the important tasks of my visit this time is to make full preparations for the upcoming visit by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to China as well as his attendance at the FOCAC Summit in Beijing and I believe that the upcoming visit by President Tinubu will help further deepen the strategic partnership between our two countries and strengthen the cooperation between our two countries in various fields and to further strengthens hands the fruitful collective cooperation between China-Africa to the benefit of China-Nigeria and China-Africa cooperation.”
