On the evening of January 13, 2018 local time, President Joao Lourenco of Angola met at the Presidential Palace with visiting Foreign Minister Wang Yi upon his arrival.

Wang Yi conveyed President Xi Jinping's greetings to Joao Lourenco. Wang Yi noted that yesterday marked the 35th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Angola. In the past 35 years, China and Angola have established solid political mutual trust and rendered firm support on issues concerning each other's core interests with all-round development of mutually beneficial cooperation. As a comrade-in-arms with Angola during its early struggle for national independence and a partner for mutually beneficial cooperation at present, China firmly supports Angola in exploring a development path that suits its own national conditions, promoting its economic diversification strategy and enhancing its self-development capacity. At the moment, bilateral relations are facing an important opportunity of inheriting the past and ushering in the future while bilateral cooperation has also entered a key stage of upgrading and improvement of quality and efficiency. Both sides should summarize the successful experience so far, bring fresh ideas of mutual benefit and win-win results and expand new fields of cooperation, so as to elevate China-Angola strategic cooperation to a new level. China will continuously encourage Chinese enterprises to invest in and cooperate with Angola. It is hoped that Angola will protect the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese enterprises according to law.

Joao Lourenco asked Wang Yi to convey his greetings and wishes to President Xi Jinping. He expressed that since Angola and China established diplomatic relations 35 years ago, bilateral relations have become increasingly close with fruitful results from bilateral cooperation. China's investment and financing have played a fairly important role in peace-building and post-war reconstruction of Angola, for which the Angolan side is grateful. Angola hopes China to continue supporting its large-scale infrastructure construction, such as railway connectivity and others, and welcomes Chinese enterprises to cooperate with Angola in the fields of mining, agriculture, animal husbandry and tourism. Angola will quicken its pace to improve investment and business environment, so as to guarantee the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese enterprises.

Wang Yi introduced China's relevant visions on holding the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation Beijing Summit as well as expressed that China is willing to maintain communication with African friends and elevate China-Africa comprehensive strategic partnership to new highs by jointly building the "Belt and Road". Joao Lourenco said he was pleased to be invited to attend the summit in China.