On January 11, 2006, Acting President and Parliament Speaker Aristides Raimundo Lima and Prime Minister José Maria Pereira Neves of Cape Verde met respectively with visiting Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing in Praia, the capital.

Lima and Neves said that the government and people of Cape Verde cherish traditional friendship with China and thank for China's disinterested support and assistance for national independence and development of Cape Verde for a long period of time. Cape Verde attaches great importance to developing long-term friendly cooperative relations with China, welcomes Chinese businesses to invest there and participate in its development and hopes to expand bilateral cooperation in economy & trade, tourism and other areas. The government of Cape Verde abides by the one-China principle and supports China's grand cause of reunification.

Li said that since the establishment of diplomatic ties 30 years ago, bilateral relations have been developing smoothly. Both sides have shown mutual trust and support for each other and conducted effective cooperation in all areas. Currently both countries are facing a heavy development task and to further deepen bilateral cooperative relations conforms to their fundamental interest. Both sides should maintain exchanges between their governments, legislatures and people, strengthen cooperation in the areas of economy & trade, culture & education, health, water conservancy, infrastructure and personnel training and increase consultations and coordination in international affairs.

Li said that the African Policy to be issued by the Chinese government will declare that in the new situation China would like to make joint efforts with African countries to establish a new type of China-Africa strategic partnership featuring political equality and mutual trust, economic win-win cooperation and cultural exchange. China would like to push for mutually beneficial cooperation with African countries including Cape Verde through the mechanism of China-Africa Cooperation Forum.

Li arrived in Praia on January 11 to start his official visit to Cape Verde and on the same day he also held talks with Foreign Minister of Cape Verde Victor Manuel Barbosa Borges and jointly signed with him the agreement on economic and technological cooperation between the two governments.