COVID-19: Buhari To Have Virtual Meeting With Chinese President, Jinping, Today

The President, Major General, Muhammadu Buhari, will today participate at the Extraordinary China-Africa Summit on Solidarity against COVID-19.

The virtual summit which holds this afternoon will be presided over by the Chinese President, Xi Jinping in Beijing.

The summit was jointly proposed by China; the rotating chair of the African Union, South Africa, and the co-chair of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, Senegal.

Leaders of African countries, including members of the AU Assembly of Heads of State and Government and rotating chairs of major African sub-regional organisations, and the chairperson of the AU Commission, are expected to participate in the video conference.

Secretary-General of the United Nations and the Director-General of the World Health Organization will attend the meeting as special guests.

The Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson, Zhao Lijian, disclosed in a statement that China has consistently attached great importance to the friendly relations of cooperation with Africa and is ready to work with African countries to build a closer community of shared future.

Since the outbreak of the pandemic, it said the People’s Republic and African countries have offered assistance to each other and joined hands in fighting COVID-19.

The statement read, “Chinese President Xi Jinping will preside over a high-profile China-Africa summit on solidarity against COVID-19 in Beijing on Wednesday. The president will deliver a speech at the summit, which will be held via video conferencing.”

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The Chinese government observed that the pandemic remains severe globally and in Africa, adding that convening the summit at this crucial time showed once again “the brotherhood between China and Africa.”

It stated, “The summit will not only consolidate consensus between the two sides on solidarity against COVID-19 and advance China-Africa cooperation, but also inject a new impetus into multilateralism and global cooperation against COVID-19.”