Eritrea, China sign 1.8m dollars development agreement
BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Jun 01,
2004
Eritrea's Foreign Minister Mr Ali Sayyid Abdallah, who is paying
an official working visit to China, today, 1 June, held talks with his Chinese
counterpart, Mr Li Zhaoxing, on bilateral and international issues.
During the meeting, Mr Ali Sayyid expressed satisfaction with the
growing relations between the two countries and reiterated the Eritrean
government's wishes to further strengthen the existing relations and
cooperation.
After briefing Mr Li on the Eritrean- Ethiopian peace process, Mr
Ali Sayyid said that the international community, and specially the guarantors
of the Algiers peace agreement did not fulfil their responsibilities regarding
the implementation of the Boundary Commission's ruling. He called on the
government of China, as an important country and as a permanent member of the
UN Security Council, to play its due role in the implementation of the Algiers
peace agreement.
The Chinese foreign minister, Mr Li, on his part lauded the
growing Eritrean-Chinese relations and said that the two countries share
similar stand on international issues.
On the Eritrean-Ethiopian border issue, Mr Li said that his
country and the UN Security Council believe the speedy implementation of the
final and binding ruling of the Boundary Commission and both countries to
concentrate on economic development tasks. He said his country would play its
due role in this issue.
Mr Li lauded the warsay-yikealo development programme undertaken
by the Eritrean government and gladly accepted an invitation extended to him by
Minister Ali Sayyid Abdallah to visit Eritrea.
Meanwhile, the Eritrean delegation led by Foreign Minister Ali
Sayyid Abdallah met with Chinese assistant minister of trade, Mr Wei Jiang
[phonetic], and assessed the economic and trade cooperation between the two
countries.
The Eritrean delegation and the government of China concluded an
agreement on development assistance worth 15m Yuan [1.8m US dollar]. [Passage
omitted].
Source: Voice of the Broad Masses of Eritrea, Asmara, in Tigrinya
1700 gmt 1 Jun 04