Chinese President Xi Jinping meets with Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema, who is in Beijing for the 2024 Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, Sept. 4, 2024. (Xinhua/Yin Bogu)

Chinese President Xi Jinping on Wednesday met with Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema, who is in Beijing for the 2024 Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC).

This year marks the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Zambia.

Xi highlighted the elevation of China-Zambia relations to a comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership in 2023, and said that mutual trust between the two countries has continued to deepen and fruitful results have been achieved in mutually beneficial cooperation over the past year.

Both sides should take this summit as an opportunity to jointly promote their respective modernization and usher in a new chapter of friendly China-Zambia relations, Xi said.

China stands ready to share development opportunities with Zambia, encourage more enterprises to actively participate in cooperation with Zambia in areas such as new energy, water resource development and electricity, and contribute to the industrialization process in Zambia and Africa.

Hichilema said he is pleased to have jointly witnessed the revitalizing of the Tanzania-Zambia Railway with President Xi, thereby carrying forward the friendship forged by the two countries' older generation of leaders and creating a new passageway for China-Africa connectivity.

Zambia is committed to deepening its comprehensive cooperation with China and continuously advancing the comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership between the two countries, Hichilema said, adding that Zambia welcomes more Chinese enterprises to invest in the country.

He said the Zambian side appreciates the outstanding leadership China has demonstrated in international affairs, and is ready to enhance multilateral coordination with China.