Extraordinary China-Africa summit attests to true friendship: S. African official

The virtual extraordinary China-Africa Summit on Solidarity Against COVID-19 which was held on Wednesday attested to a true friendship between China and Africa, said a South African official.

Anil Sooklal, deputy director-general for Asia and Middle East at the Department of International Relations and Cooperation, said the summit was the first of such globally, where China and Africa partnered to see how jointly they can fix the challenges brought by COVID-19.

Sooklal said the virus impacts not only on human lives and well-being, but also on economies and issues of employment.

"China is very well positioned to partner Africa," Sooklal said, adding that China is the first country that experienced the devastation of COVID-19 and mastered a great deal of experience in the very able manner that it has been able to contain the virus and overcome the major challenge.

He thanked China for initiating the summit.

"China has been at the forefront in terms of sharing information, experience and best practice and now also promising to share research and possible solution to medication dealing with the virus," he said.

"The joint communique which was issued at the end of this extraordinary summit attest to a great success of the summit because it covered a wide arena of subjects," he said, "This can mark very clearly that China is standing with Africa."