On December 16, 2003, in his talks with journalists in Addis Ababa, Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing said that Premier Wen Jiabao's official visits to the United States, Canada, Mexico, Ethiopia and his attending of the Opening Session of the Second Ministerial Meeting of Forum on China-Africa Cooperation upon invitation from December 7 to 16 have achieved important results in many aspects.

Li said that this is the first time Premier Wen has paid bilateral visits since the new central government came into office this March. Premier Wen took part in over 80 functions in as short as 10 days. Those activities include talks and meetings with state leaders and cordial contacts with personages from different circles. He not only delivered speeches on many occasions but also visited different agencies in financing, industry, agriculture, energy, telecommunication and scientific research with distinctive features and inspected branches of Chinese companies in the related countries. Li said Wen's visits have achieved important results in the following aspects,

First, the visits further strengthened the political relationship between China and the four countries. Wen's visit to US was the third meeting between top leaders of China and US within this year, after President Hu Jintao's meetings with President Bush at Evian, France and Bangkok, Thailand. The two leaders exchanged in-depth views on bilateral relations and reached a consensus that it conforms with fundamental interests of both peoples and facilitates world peace and stability for China and US to strengthen mutually beneficial cooperation. Both sides have agreed to further consolidate cooperation and promote the development of China-US constructive relations of cooperation. It was a coincidence that there was a leadership change in Canada when Premier Wen visited Canada. Wen's proposals to deepen China-Canada all-around cooperative partnership gained the uniform welcome of both incumbent and incoming prime ministers of Canada. In Mexico, Premier Wen and President Fox jointly announced to establish China-Mexico strategic partnership and initiate an inter-governmental standing committee to take charge of guiding and coordinating work on the cooperation between the two countries in various fields. In Ethiopia, Premier Wen and Ethiopian leaders noted both sides would commit themselves to the fostering of China-Ethiopian all-around cooperative relations on the basis of the consolidation of traditional friendship. 

Second, Premier Wen expounded the Chinese government's principled position on the Taiwan question and won extensive support. In response to the Taiwan authorities' pressing up with "Taiwan Independence" activities, Premier Wen stressed that the basic guideline of the Chinese government to resolve the Taiwan question is "peaceful reunification and one country, two systems". We will, with the biggest sincerity, do our utmost to realize peaceful reunification of the motherland, and will not forsake the efforts to gain a peaceful reunification as long as a glimmer of hope exists. The Chinese government respects the desire of people in Taiwan for democracy, but the Taiwan authorities are only using democracy as an excuse and their attempts to resort to defensive referendum to break Taiwan away from China are what the Chinese people could never tolerate. Bush noted that the US side sticks to the One China policy, observes the three US-China communiqués and is against "Taiwan independence" and the recent statements and proposals coming out of Taiwan that imply a unilateral desire to change the status quo. Leaders of both Mexico and Ethiopia clearly noted that they support the position of the Chinese government and the reunification cause of China.

Third, Premier Wen's visits opened up a new prospect for the sound development of bilateral trade and economic cooperation. China's external trade volume has on continuous increase with the deepening of reform and opening up. Talking about issues emerging in the rapid development of economic and trade cooperation between China and the related countries, Wen put forward new ideas, suggestions and measures respectively. In US, his proposal of five principles, including strengthening reciprocal cooperation, solving trade imbalance through development, elevating the level of bilateral economic and trade coordination mechanism, consulting on an equal footing and non-politicalizing of economic and trade issues, obtained nod of the US side. In Canada, he and the Canadian leader decided on the establishment of bilateral ministerial strategic consultation mechanism and the cultivation of long-term stable, reciprocal and beneficial economic and trade cooperative relations featured with changing resources for markets, promoting investment with technology. In Mexico, Wen's opinion that China and Mexico are cooperative partners instead of competitors and the suggestion of promoting multi-polarization of bilateral economic and trade activities were much recognized by people from various circles. In Ethiopia, his points that China and Ethiopia, China and the African countries should put the emphasis of mutually beneficial cooperation on the fields of agriculture, human resources tapping and infrastructure building were warmly echoed by leaders of African countries including Ethiopia. During Wen's visits, China and the four countries also signed wide-ranging documents on cooperation, including inter-governmental agreements and inter-company trading contracts, which added great vigor to bilateral reciprocal cooperation.

Fourth, the visits consolidated and strengthened traditional friendly relations between China and developing countries, especially African countries. The Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, launched in October, 2000, is a major collective dialogue and cooperation mechanism between China and African countries. In the opening session of the second ministerial meeting of the Forum in which 44 African members participated, Premier Wen suggested China and African countries should support each other, coordinate their positions and deepen cooperation. He also called on the international community to offer more and more substantial care about the peace and development of Africa. In his meeting with presidents, vice presidents, prime ministers, or parliament leaders from 12 African countries as well as the chairman of the Commission of African Union, Wen talked about establishing a new type of long-term stable, equal and mutually beneficial, comprehensive cooperative partnership between China and Africa. In a word, Wen's first visit to the African continent and the successful convocation of the second ministerial meeting of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation are bound to produce far-reaching influences on China-Africa friendship and enhance the unity and cooperation between China and all developing countries.

Finally, Li summarized Premier Wen's visits to the four countries and his attending the meeting of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation as a trip with plentiful and substantial fruits and which achieved its projected results of deepening understanding, increasing friendship, expanding consensus, and promoting cooperation.