On August 25, 2010, Burundi President Pierre Nkuruzinza, who was re-elected in June this year for the second five-year term, met with the special envoy of the Chinese Government and Vice Foreign Minister Zhai Jun in the presidential palace.

On behalf of Chinese President Hu Jintao and the Chinese government, Zhai first extended congratulations to Nkuruzinza, who will swear in as President of Burundi on August 26. Zhai said that the Chinese government cherishes the traditional friendship with Burundi and is ready to work closely with the country to well implement the outcome at the 4th Ministerial Conference of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), enhance friendly cooperation between the two countries in all areas and push bilateral ties to a new level.

Nkuruzinza thanked the Chinese government for sending its special envoy to attend his inauguration ceremony. Nkuruzinza said that the Chinese government and people have offered strong support to Burundi’s post-war reconstruction, for which the Burundian side was grateful. Burundi hopes to learn from China’s development experience and expand cooperation with China on infrastructure construction, agriculture and clean energy so as to continuously consolidate and develop bilateral friendly cooperative relations.

On the same day, Zhai also met with Burundian Foreign Minister Augustin Nsanze. Both sides signed an agreement on economic and technological cooperation between the two governments as well as an exchange of notes on China providing material assistance to Burundi.

Chinese Ambassador to Burundi Yu Xuzhong attended the above activities.