On Wednesday, the Union of the Comoros and the People’s Republic of China organized the third session of the Joint Commission for Economic, Trade and Technical Cooperation between the Union of the Comoros and the People’s Republic of China at the Comor ministries of foreign affairs.
On Wednesday, the Comorian Ministry of Foreign Affairs hosted the third Comoros-China Joint Committee. Still the meeting was chaired by the Secretary General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Imam Abdillah. The Chinese side was led by the Deputy Director General of the Department of West Asia and Africa Affairs of the Chinese Ministry of Commence, Xu Zhanglu.
In his speech, Ambassador Imam Abdillah first welcomed the quality of the Chinese delegation. He recalled that the second session of the Joint Commission was held in Beijing in June 2019. Seven years later, both sides met in Moroni to discuss cooperation between the two countries, which continued to develop. “The cooperation between our two countries reached a decisive milestone at rethinking our bilateral relations as a strategic partnership at the Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation in September 2024, when President Azali Assoumani and President Xi Jinping agreed.
This historic decision of our two Heads of State is, for all of us today, both an honour and a responsibility, to translate this political vision into concrete and measurable results,” said the Comorian diplomat, before stating that the conclusions of this session faithfully reflect the commitment made by the two Heads of State.
Strengthening economic policymakers
Imam Abdillah also renewed the commitment commitment of the Government of the Union of the Comoros to “strengthen economic, commercial and technical cooperation between the Comoros and China”. He said that commitment must be constant, and ambition must be expanded on new areas that remain un aerospaceed. He spoke of the maritime space of nearly 160,000 km square kilometres of the Union of Comoros, which constitutes a real basis for economic development.
“We therefore remain ready to cooperate in the field of the blue economy, which is guided by political instruments and which meet the win-win principle between the two countries.” Ambassador Imam Abdillah pleaded with China for the construction of the first motorway linking north of Ngazidja to the south of the island. According to him, “this infrastructure will connect the island’s tourist area with the productive zone”.
For his part, the head of the Chinese delegation, Xu Zhanglu, claimed that both sides had exchanged views on topics of interest to both countries. In any case, his delegation was confident of the future of cooperation.
“Economic and commercial cooperation between our two countries has a great potential,” he explained before pointing out that both parties will develop feasible projects. Finally, Xu Zhanglu announced the organization of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (Focac) to be held next year to which Comoros is invited. He then called on the Comoros to prepare bankable projects that could benefit from financial support from China.