On December 5 local time, President Xi Jinping held a group meeting again with 17 African leaders in Johannesburg.

Leaders attending the meeting included President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo of Equatorial Guinea, President Idriss Deby of Chad, President Macky Sall of Senegal, President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia, President Thomas Boni Yayi of Benin, President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz of Mauritania, President Alassane Dramane Ouattara of Cote d'Ivoire, President Mahamadou Issoufou of Niger, President Jorge Carlos Fonseca of Cape Verde, President Peter Mutharika of Malawi, President José Mário Vaz of Guinea-Bissau, President Edgar Lungu of Zambia, Prime Minister Abdelmalek Sellal of Algeria, Prime Minister Mahamat Kamoun of the Central African Republic, First Vice President Bakri Hassan Saleh of Sudan, Vice President Victor Bockarie Foh of Sierra Leone and Second Vice President Joseph Butore of Burundi.

Xi Jinping pointed out that it is in the interests of both sides that China and Africa strengthen unity and cooperation and achieve common development. China firmly supports Africa to achieve long-lasting peace, backs the African countries to address regional issues independently and stands ready to play a constructive role in promoting political settlement of Africa's hot-spot issues. China is willing to strengthen cooperation with the African countries in building their capability of safeguarding peace and security. China firmly supports Africa's pursuit of independent and sustainable development, stands ready to share China's experience on reform, opening-up and economic development with the African countries, encourages more Chinese companies to actively participate in the process of industrialization and modernization construction of Africa, and supports the African countries' efforts in actively exploring a development path in line with their own national conditions.

President Xi Jinping introduced China's economic situation and development goals and concepts set on the fifth plenary session of the 18th CPC Central Committee to leaders attending the meeting. He stressed that China and Africa have respective demands and advantages and are facing a rare historic opportunity of cooperation and development. We are willing to work with the African countries to earnestly implement the outcomes of the Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) so as to better achieve common development.

Leaders of African countries present expressed appreciation to China for its valuable contributions to Africa's development. Africa regards China as a good friend and Africa-China friendly cooperation has brought about tangible benefits. Such cooperation is on the basis of equality with mutual benefits and win-win results. The continuous development of China will benefit the African nations. President Xi Jinping's initiatives on South-South cooperation proposed at the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Summit and measures to help the African Union (AU) build its peacekeeping capacity at the UN Peacekeeping Summit this September, as well as the "ten major cooperation plans" proposed at the opening ceremony of the Johannesburg Summit of the FOCAC yesterday meet the current development needs of African countries and inspire them greatly. The African countries are looking forward to deepening cooperation with China in areas such as industrialization, agricultural modernization, infrastructure construction, digital economy, regional integration, education, people-to-people and cultural exchanges and security, and to enhancing cooperation with China in maintaining peace and security in Africa.

Wang Huning, Li Zhanshu, Yang Jiechi and others attended the meeting.