On November 24, 2008, the first China-AU strategic dialogue was held at the African Union (AU) headquarters in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa. Chinese Assistant Foreign Minister Zhai Jun and Chairman of the Commission of the African Union Jean Ping attended the dialogue. Both sides exchanged in-depth views on the China-AU strategic dialogue mechanism, China-AU relations and cooperation, African hot issues concerning Darfur, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Zimbabwe and Somalia, as well as some major international issues, and reached a lot of consensus.