From October 18 to 19, 2008, the sixth senior officials meeting of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) was held in Cairo, the capital of Egypt. Representatives from China, 48 FOCAC African members, as well as regional organizations attended the meeting. Chinese Assistant Foreign Minister Zhai Jun attended and addressed the opening ceremony of the meeting. Egyptian Assistant Foreign Minister Ambassador Ibrahim Ali Hassan, also FOCAC coordinator, read out the written speech on behalf of Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit. Both sides also attended and addressed the closing ceremony of the meeting.

The meeting reviewed a report presented by Xu Jinghu, Secretary General of the Chinese Follow-up Committee of the Forum, on the implementation of the follow-up actions of the Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) in November 2006, and further moves. The delegates decided to hold the fourth ministerial conference of the forum in the fourth quarter of 2009 in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh as well as the 7th senior officials meeting. They also held discussions on the two topics of “China-Africa agricultural cooperation and food security” and “infrastructure construction”.

The delegates agreed that with the joint efforts of both sides, the implementation of the follow-up actions of the Beijing Summit has been satisfactory with fruitful cooperation on politics, economy, trade, social development, humanities, personnel exchanges and the Forum mechanism building. The representatives from African countries appreciated and thanked China for its unswerving efforts and efficient work in implementing the follow-up actions of the Beijing summit, especially the 8 measures on practical cooperation with Africa. The Chinese delegation spoke highly of African countries’ efforts to keep close cooperation with China and seriously implement the achievements reached at the Beijing summit. The meeting successfully completed the mid-term evaluation of the follow-up actions of the FOCAC Beijing Summit as well as preparatory work for the fourth ministerial conference of the Forum, and reached its expected goals of building understanding and promoting cooperation.

On the sidelines of the meeting, Chinese Assistant Foreign Minister Zhai Jun met with Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit and Mutrif Siddiq, the Undersecretary at the Sudanese Foreign Ministry.