Premier Zhu Wrong of the State Council met with visiting Nigerien President Mamadou Tandja on the afternoon of June 6, 2001, during which they had an extensive exchange of views on how to further the friendly cooperation between the two countries in all fields.

Extending welcome to Tandja, Zhu expressed pleasure of making acquaintance with Tandja. He noted that President Jiang Zemin and Tandja held fruitful talks and reached extensive consensus the day before, which shows Tandja's current China visit has scored great success.

Zhu hailed the smooth development of bilateral relations since the restoration of diplomatic ties four years ago. He noted that bilateral cooperation and contacts have expanded and the friendship between the two peoples have deepened ever since. Calling Tandja an old friend of the Chinese people, Zhu expressed appreciation for Tandja's efforts to promote the friendship between the two countries, the importance he attaches to relations with China, his adherence to the "One China" principle and support to the reunification cause of the Chinese people and China's stance on human rights and other major international issues. He added that the Chinese government has always attached importance to Sino- Nigerien relations, and is ready to join hands with the Nigerien government and people to promote the bilateral relations to a new high.

Zhu noted that China and Niger have made progress in economic cooperation and trade, saying that the mutually beneficial cooperation between enterprises of the two countries has also achieved gratifying progress. Zhu noted that a group of Nigerien entrepreneurs are accompanying Tandja on his visit to China. He said this will help to promote the mutual understanding and exchanges between entrepreneurs of the two countries and create more opportunities for cooperation. He added that the Chinese government is willing to tap the potentials of bilateral economic cooperation and trade and expand the areas of cooperation with Niger in the spirit of practicality so as to achieve even greater success in this regard.

Thanking Zhu for meeting with him, Tandja spoke highly of the traditional friendly relations and cooperation between Niger and China. He noted that Niger-China friendly relations and cooperation have enjoyed a long history, and Niger has benefited quite a lot from such relations. He added that Niger-China relations, which once departed from the correct line, have returned to normal thanks to the joint efforts of the two sides. He noted that Niger is ready to work with China to promote bilateral relations to a new-type partnership. Tandja said he believes trade and economic cooperation between Niger and China will be more fruitful with the exchanges and contacts between entrepreneurs he has brought with him and their Chinese counterparts.