Photo: Courtesy of Ministry of Foreign Affairs

The second Senior Officials Meeting of the Second Horn of Africa Peace Conference convened in Beijing on Monday, with officials from China and African countries vowing to push forward bilateral cooperation to achieve more new results and benefit the people of both sides.

The event was attended by Vice Foreign Minister Chen Xiaodong, Special Envoy for the Horn of Africa Affairs Xue Bing from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, representatives from the Ministry of Commerce and the China International Development Cooperation Agency, and senior officials and diplomats from the foreign ministries of Ethiopia, Djibouti, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, and Uganda.

"Since the Initiative of Peaceful Development in the Horn of Africa was proposed more than two years ago, China has worked hand in hand with countries in the Horn of Africa, focusing on the three main goals of 'security, development, and governance,' to support regional peace and development through concrete actions," Chen said. 

China is willing to continue to be a partner on the path to peace with the Horn of Africa countries, guided by the Global Security Initiative, to build a 'comprehensive security' framework with a broad vision of peace, and to be a pioneer in maintaining peace, Chen noted. 

"We will also continue to be partners on the path to development, guided by the Global Development Initiative, and work together to build the Belt and Road with high quality, striving to be leaders in shared development. Furthermore, we will continue to be partners on the path to justice, actively participating in the reform and construction of the global governance system, safeguarding international fairness and justice, and the common interests of developing countries, striving to be forerunners in upholding justice. China is willing to work with the countries in the Horn of Africa to turn the region into a horn of peace, development, and prosperity, building a high-level China-Africa community with a shared future," Chen added.

Participants positively evaluated China's proposals and thanked China for its contributions. They also engaged in in-depth and frank exchanges on the next steps to promote regional peace and development. 

All parties agreed to focus on the five areas of peace, security, development, cooperation, and governance, to push forward bilateral cooperation to achieve more new results and better benefit the people of both sides.

The Initiative of Peaceful Development in the Horn of Africa is a Chinese solution proposed by China at the beginning of 2022 to assist the peace and development process in the Horn of Africa. It aims to support regional countries in achieving long-term stability and development prosperity through unity and self-strengthening. 

With the joint efforts of both sides, the implementation of the initiative has progressed smoothly, effectively helping regional countries to coordinate their responses to the three major challenges of security, development, and governance, and has been widely welcomed by the countries in the region, the Global Times learned.