Hossam Eddin el-Hefni: Half a century of diplomatic ties with China

Egypt and China are preparing to celebrate the Golden Jubilee of diplomatic relations between the two countries.

The celebrations are presently being organized by the Egyptian Embassy in Beijing and the Chinese Ministries of Culture and Foreign Affairs.

"China's leaders want to render the strong relationship between the two countries even stronger," said Egyptian ambassador to China, Hossam Eddin el-Hefni, referring to Egypt's role in this via hosting the African-Chinese Ministers Conference in Cairo in four years' time.

The ambassador pointed out that China hasn't forgotten, the Bandung Conference, held in April 1955, in which Egypt tried to boost relations between China and Africa.

He added that China wants to uphold the Bandung agreements, as well as activating the five principles of peaceful coexistent, tackled 50 years ago by the conference.

"We hope that the strong relations between the two countries will help to boost trade and economic relations between the two countries in several fields," Hefni said.

After the United States of America and Japan, China has the biggest volume of foreign trade of any country, hitting US$1,155 billion last year.