On January 7, 2017, President Hery Rajaonarimampianina of Madagascar met at the Presidential Palace in Antananarivo with Foreign Minister Wang Yi.

Hery Rajaonarimampianina said that Madagascar and China enjoy time-honored friendship, and the two peoples share family-like closeness. For a long time, China has offered a lot of selfless assistance to Madagascar, and many Chinese enterprises have participated in Madagascar's domestic construction, making positive contributions to pushing forward Madagascar's development. As a gateway into Africa, Madagascar faces rare development opportunities. The country welcomes and supports the "Belt and Road" initiative proposed by President Xi Jinping as well as hopes that this initiative will enter Africa through Madagascar. The Madagascan side is ready to actively take part in the "Belt and Road" construction and deepen cooperation with China in agriculture, fishery, tourism and other areas under this framework. The country will continue to staunchly uphold the one-China policy and maintain mutual support with China on issues concerning respective core interests. Regarding China as the most trustworthy cooperation partner, Madagascar is confident in the prospects of bilateral relations. Hery Rajaonarimampianina conveyed his sincere greetings to President Xi Jinping.

Wang Yi conveyed President Xi Jinping's regards to Hery Rajaonarimampianina, and congratulated Madagascar on realizing national reconciliation as well as political stability and striding on a new path of national development and construction in recent years. Wang Yi said that this year marks the 45th anniversary of the establishment of bilateral diplomatic relations. It is hoped that the two sides will take this opportunity to discuss and define the development direction and cooperation framework of bilateral relations. Wang Yi noted that China proposes that both countries should seize the two major opportunities brought by the implementation of the outcomes of the Johannesburg Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation and the promotion of the "Belt and Road" international cooperation, give full play to complementary advantages, and mainly launch mutually beneficial cooperation in "five major industries" including agriculture, fishery, the processing and manufacturing industry, tourism service and regional aviation according to Madagascar's development needs. At the same time, China will build "three-aspect support", including infrastructure construction, human resource development and trade and investment facilitation to this end. Guided by this concept, China will effectively help Madagascar to create jobs, improve people's livelihood, eliminate poverty, truly transform its unique advantages in geographical location and natural resources into development achievements, aid Madagascar to accelerate its industrialization and agricultural modernization and support Madagascar to realize independent and sustainable development. Hery Rajaonarimampianina agrees with these gestures.