French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian expressed gratitude to his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi on Thursday, after Beijing sent masks and medical supplies to the coronavirus-hit European country.

During phone talks, Le Drian said France sincerely thanks China for providing medical aid to help fight COVID-19, adding that France is willing to learn from China's epidemic prevention and control experience.

He said France is taking strong measures in a bid to end the outbreak as soon as possible.

A batch of medical supplies sent by China to France arrived at the Paris Roissy-Charles de Gaulle airport on Wednesday.

The package of medical aid includes protective masks, surgical masks, protective suits and medical gloves, as required by the French side, according to Lu Shaye, China's ambassador to France.

Meanwhile, a batch of one million face masks, donated by the Alibaba Foundation and Jack Ma Foundation were flown in Belgium on Wednesday en route to France.

As of Wednesday, France has recorded 9,134 confirmed coronavirus cases and 264 deaths.

Wang, also a Chinese State Councilor, said China sympathizes with France and is willing to provide aid and is ready to share prevention and control experience.

China is also ready to expand bilateral scientific and technological cooperation in health and medicine, he added.

Wang also stressed that the virus does not know borders and is the common enemy of humanity, calling for efforts to jointly combat the pandemic.

China, in an open, transparent and responsible manner, has been sharing information and data with the World Health Organization (WHO) and other countries, and the country's travel restrictions and quarantine measures have bought other countries time to contain the outbreak, Wang said.

He urged certain countries to stop politicizing COVID-19 and stigmatizing China.

(Cover: China's State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi (R) meets French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian in Beijing, April 25, 2019. /Chinese Foreign Ministry)