On November 24, 2020, President Xi Jinping exchanged messages of congratulations with Ethiopian President Sahle-Work Zewde to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the establishment of China-Ethiopia diplomatic relations.

Xi Jinping pointed out in his message that over the half a century since the establishment of China-Ethiopia diplomatic relations, traditional friendship of the two countries has been getting stronger. In recent years, with the building of the China-Ethiopia comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership, both countries have been deepening political mutual trust and achieving fruitful cooperative results in various fields. Both sides have rendered mutual understanding and support to each other on issues of their core interests and major concerns, and have coordinated closely in international and regional affairs. Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, China and Ethiopia have helped each other in time of difficulties, setting an example of China-Africa unity in fighting the pandemic. Noting that he attaches great importance to the development of China-Ethiopia relations, Xi Jinping said he is ready to work with President Sahle-Work to take the opportunity of the 50th anniversary to implement the outcomes of the Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation and the Extraordinary China-Africa Summit on Solidarity against COVID-19, enhance the Belt and Road cooperation, and make more positive contributions to building a closer China-Africa community with a shared future.

Sahle-Work said in her message that over the past 50 years since the establishment of Ethiopia-China diplomatic relations, the bilateral ties have been deepening continuously on the basis of close coordination and political mutual trust, and the bilateral cooperation has yielded fruitful results. The Ethiopia-China relations have been upgraded to a comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership, which has laid a solid foundation for deepening bilateral cooperation in various fields, and for benefiting the two countries and peoples in the future. Sahle-Work expressed her willingness to work closely with President Xi to continuously promote traditional friendly relations between the two countries, deepen and expand bilateral cooperation, so as to bring more benefits to the two countries and peoples.