On December 22, Secretary General of the League of Arab States Amre Moussa met with Chinese Assistant Foreign Minister Lu Guozeng who was attending China, Middle East and North Africa Diplomatic Envoys' Meeting. He expressed his satisfaction with the development of China-Africa Cooperation Forum, believing the forum enjoys great development potentials.

Moussa first recalled the achievements scored by China-Africa Cooperation Forum since its inception, expressing satisfaction with its development. He said the forum was launched during Chinese President Hu Jintao's visit to Egypt in January 2004. Since then, remarkable progress has been made in bilateral political, economic and cultural cooperation.

Moussa stressed the League of Arab States attaches importance to developing relations with China. China-Africa Cooperation Forum serves as a platform to promote the development of bilateral ties. China-Africa Ministerial Meeting to be held in Beijing next year is an important conference between the two sides given the new international and regional situations. He emphasized the league would like to further enhance dialogue and cooperation between China and Africa as the situation of the Middle East continues to evolve.

Assistant Foreign Minister Lu said China gives priority to the development of China-Africa relations. With the creation of China-Africa Cooperation Forum, the scope of bilateral cooperation has been increasingly expanded. Currently the forum has successfully convened a series of important meetings including China-Africa Entrepreneurs' Conference, China-Africa Bilateral Meeting, Dialogue on China-Africa Relations and Dialogue on Chinese and Africa Civilization, etc. The two sides are preparing for the Second China-Africa Ministerial Meeting to be held in Beijing next June. He hoped to see brighter prospects and higher productivity in China-Africa cooperation in the future.