Excellencies, Colleagues, 
Ladies and Gentlemen,

Welcome to this reception. The 2024 FOCAC Summit begins today in Beijing. This grand reunion, strengthening solidarity and friendship between China and Africa, is the largest diplomatic event China has hosted in recent years. There will be a welcoming banquet, opening ceremony, and four high-level meetings on the topics like state governance, industrialization and agricultural modernization, peace and security, high-quality Belt and Road cooperation. In recent days, President XI Jinping has been meeting with leaders of African countries intensively. UN Secretary-General António Guterres took a high speed train from Shanghai to Beijing yesterday to attend the summit. I am sure that you will hear more exciting stories about the summit from your colleagues in Beijing. 

I also believe that, for all the aspects of the traditional friendship and development cooperation between China and African countries, colleagues here have much more comprehensive and in-depth understanding than I do. They are like stories about love and helping each other that spread among villages and families across China and Africa, always giving us warmth, confidence and strength, and helping us move forward.

I had the honour of participating in the first FOCAC Summit in 2006 in Beijing and 9 years later the 2015 Johannesburg Summit. At the Johannesburg Summit, President XI Jinping pointed out that, China and Africa have always been a community with a shared future. He also proposed ten cooperation plans to promote China-Africa Comprehensive Strategic and Cooperative Partnership at that time.

To this day, another 9 years have passed since then. We have witnessed, experienced, and engaged in so many events in the world while the international landscape continues to undergo profound and complex changes. Nevertheless, the common pursuit of development and cooperation between China and Africa has never changed, and the original purpose and mission of FOCAC has never changed. Africa demonstrates the high-quality Belt and Road cooperation and the implementation of the Global Development Initiative and resonates most proactively and positively with China's major initiatives and propositions globally. The spirit of FOCAC, which features sincere friendship and equality, win-win for mutual benefit and common development, fairness and justice, and progress with the times, openness and inclusiveness, is of great practical significance and has a far-reaching historical impact in this turbulent world. The 2024 FOCAC summit will draw a new blueprint for the development of China-Africa relations, and write a new chapter of solidarity and cooperation of the Global South.

Dear Colleagues，

Vienna is an important platform for demonstrating the spirit of FOCAC, promoting practical cooperation between China and Africa, and enhancing international development cooperation for the benefit of the Global South. This year, through the joint efforts of all parties, we have achieved new progress in this regard. IAEA, China, and the African Union have agreed on a Memorandum of Understanding on tripartite cooperation. Early this week, China and IAEA started a training program in Chengdu, China to cultivate radiation therapy physicists for African countries under the “Rays of Hope” initiative proposed by Director General Grossi. This training program will last for 3 months. 15 African countries participated in this training. Many of them are from countries that present here.

UNIDO has signed a joint declaration on tripartite cooperation with China and Ethiopia, specifying the establishment of the Centre of Excellence open to the whole Africa, in key cooperation areas such as agriculture, green development and so on. China and Africa will strengthen communication and cooperation within the framework of the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space to jointly promote international space cooperation and global space governance that are fair and reasonable and take into account the needs of developing countries.

This year, what I have spoken about most is that development is the sunshine of Vienna. This is my personal experience of the work here, as well as my understanding of and reflection on the importance of the Vienna multilateral platform. The Vienna multilateral agenda is closely related to the urgent aspirations of the vast number of developing countries for peace and development. The international organizations in Vienna provide important platforms for cooperation and development projects for the Global South. The development rights and cooperation opportunities of the Global South are not a favor offered by other parts of the world. They should be called upon and sought for together by ourselves. As a natural member of the Global South, China will always stand by African countries and the Global South, actively supporting and participating in all initiatives in favour of developing countries. We will continue to contribute China's ideas, visions and answers to the Vienna agenda for international development cooperation, providing more concrete cooperation projects and public goods. During the General Conference of IAEA later this month, China will introduce new measures to promote international cooperation in nuclear science and technology, which are new public goods brought by China to the Vienna multilateral platform on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of China’s membership of IAEA. I believe that the new measures will be welcomed by the Global South and the international community.

The 2024 FOCAC Summit will be a new starting point and bring new momentum. Let’s join hands in actively practicingtrue multilateralism and the Vienna Spirit of mutual respect, consensus, solidarity and collaboration. Let’s vigorously advocate for the peaceful use and development cooperation for the Global South. Our efforts in Vienna will definitely contribute toadvancing modernization and building a high-level China-Africa community with a shared future.