I received a letter from President Xi Jinping of China expressing his support for the EACOP project. I welcome His Excellency’s support and invitation to the Energy minister to visit China for further discussions with his government.
Ambassador Xue Bing, the Special Envoy for the Horn of Africa Affairs of the Chinese Foreign Minister, discussed three crucial areas with me: strengthening bilateral ties, the upcoming Forum on Africa-China Cooperation (FOCAC), and a peace conference for the Horn of Africa.
I welcome China’s cooperation, in particular, the construction of a railway to the coast with the UPDF engineering brigade. I also urge the Chinese government to encourage their to invest in value addition at the source and import finished products from Africa to reduce dependency on exporting raw materials.
