Chinese President Xi Jinping on Saturday hailed the high-level China-Africa ties in his congratulatory message to the 34th African Union Summit, eyeing further progress in bilateral cooperation.

In his message, Xi stressed the year 2020 was a significant year for China-Africa relations as the two sides supported each other to get through the difficult time during the COVID-19 outbreak.

The success of the Extraordinary China-Africa summit on COVID-19 and the steady progress made on bilateral cooperation in all fields further proved the high-level development of the ties, Xi said.

Noting the new round of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation will be held in Senegal, Xi said that China is willing to work with Africa to reach strategic consensus, step up cooperation on COVID-19 and fully implement the achievements made in the forum's 2018 Beijing Summit.

President Xi said China is also ready to work with Africa to cement bilateral cooperation under the framework of the "Belt and Road Initiative" and strive to build a stronger community with a shared future to bring benefits to the people on both sides.