On January 9, 2010, Ernest Bai Koroma, President of Sierra Leone, met with visiting Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi in Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone.

During the meeting, Yang said China and Sierra Leone enjoyed a time-honored friendship, solid relationship and fruitful bilateral cooperation. In recent years, relations between the two countries have been developing rapidly with frequent personnel exchanges at all levels and steady progress in economic, trade and other fields, the Chinese Foreign Minister said, applauding that China and Sierra Leone communicate and coordinate with each other constantly on important international and regional issues. Yang said China attaches importance to the relationship with Sierra Leone and would like to work with the west African country to strengthen traditional friendship, enhance political mutual trust, take real action to carry out the already-agreed cooperation projects, further cooperation on multilateral issues, and promote bilateral relationship to a new stage. China will work with member states of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) including Sierra Leone to implement the follow-up actions of the Fourth Ministerial Conference of FOCAC, which was held in Egypt last year, in a concrete way, and further strengthen the new type of China-Africa strategic partnership.

Koroma applauded good relationship between the west African country and China, saying since the establishment of diplomatic relations 38 years ago bilateral relations between the two countries have been promoted continuously based on mutual respect. He thanked China for providing selfless assistance which contributed to the economic and social development in the country. Koroma reiterated that Sierra Leone firmly adheres to the one-China policy and supports China's positions on issues related to Xinjiang and Tibet. Sierra Leone and China cooperated closely on some international issues including climate change and the global financial crisis, the President said, adding that Sierra Leone appreciates the important role which China plays in international affairs and would like to strengthen coordination with China on multilateral issues of common interest to promote the democratization of international relations. Koroma highly praised China's implementation of the measures announced at the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), saying Sierra Leone would like to help enhance Africa-China cooperation for mutual benefit.

On the same day, Yang also held talks with his Sierra Leone counterpart, Zainab Hawa Bangura, before attending a handover ceremony of a China-donated village school and meeting the local media.