Somalia-China cooperation expanding across sectors: Somali president

China

Somalia-China cooperation expanding across sectors: Somali president

2025-12-20 14:19 Last Updated At：17:27

Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud has reaffirmed his country's deepening ties with China, highlighting the relationship's advancement to become a strategic partnership that has produced growing cooperation across multiple fields.

In an exclusive interview with China Media Group (CMG) aired on Friday, Mohamud highlighted the evolving Somalia-China relationship, emphasizing the growing cooperation between the two nations.

Mohamud attended the 2024 Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) Summit in Beijing last September, where he and Chinese President Xi Jinping announced the elevation of bilateral relations to a strategic partnership.

"I met President Xi in Beijing, and we had a very good discussion on improving the relationship between our two countries and the areas of cooperation that we can [pursue]. I also met a couple of Chinese companies there, as well as Chinese authorities from different departments of China. Some of the projects and development plans that we discussed have already been implemented. There were a couple of delegations from Somalia that visited China for experience sharing, and China (presented) their development track, the historical development of China. [We] got to experience how China started from a low level until today. This is power. So that has already started. The exchange of visits is taking place," said Mohamud.

"That's a partnership, and it is strategic. It's not piecemeal, here and there. So, being strategic, it takes some time to develop, to build, and then to implement. So we are engaging. We and China, our engagement had been (disrupted) by the civil war, by the conflict here. And these are the years that China has developed the most. And we were not engaging [with] China during all these years. So now, re-engaging and renewing our approaches will take some time, but it's [something we are] working on," said the president.

Somalia and China on Tuesday marked the 65th anniversary of their diplomatic relations, vowing to elevate their mutual cooperation and pursue more productive and shared interests.

GBA students celebrate 26th anniversary of Macao’s return to motherland with traditional calligraphy art

Students in Shangtou City, south China's Guangdong Province, and in the Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) have celebrated the 26th anniversary of Macao's return to the motherland by writing Chinese characters in traditional calligraphy.

The young students at Haojiang Experimental School Affiliated to South China Normal University wrote the Chinese character "Gui," meaning "return," in various styles of script, including the dignified regular script and the smooth-running script.

"The city flower of Macao is the lotus, and that of Shantou is the impatiens cyathiflora. Today, the two flowers bloom in harmony. Our blessings for the motherland are the most beautiful blossoms," said Zeng Boxuan, a student from the school.

Macao, a vibrant and diverse city, returned to the motherland on Dec 20, 1999, and Saturday marks the 26th anniversary of this historic milestone.

At Puiva Middle School in Macao, members of the calligraphy club celebrated the SAR's anniversary and the country's prosperity and strength by practicing the millennium-old art of calligraphy under their teacher's guidance.

Students from overseas Chinese language schools also used this form of visual arts, which carries the enduring cultural heritage spanning ancient and modern times, in spiritual association with the motherland.