What to expect of Sierra Leonean president's state visit to China

Sierra Leonean President Julius Maada Bio will pay a state visit to China from February 27 to March 2. During his visit, he will meet his Chinese counterpart and attend a welcome ceremony and banquet.

Re-elected in June 2023, Bio visited China in 2018 to attend the Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation. In May 2021, the two heads of the state had a phone conversation on the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between the two countries. 

China and Sierra Leone established diplomatic relations in 1971, vowing to develop friendly cooperation on the basis of mutual respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity, mutual non-aggression and non-interference in each other's internal affairs, and equality and mutually beneficial peaceful co-existence.

Over the past 50-plus years, the two countries have cooperated in various areas and maintained close coordination on international affairs. 

The two countries signed memorandum of understanding on the Belt and Road cooperation in August 2018. In November last year, the two states signed the Economic and Technical Cooperation Agreement aiming to further deepen the friendly relations and support the socioeconomic development of Sierra Leone.

In a recent interview with Xinhua ahead of Bio's visit to China, Sierra Leonean Minister of Information and Civic Education Chernor Bah said the friendship between Sierra Leone and China over the past few decades has delivered tangible results.

According to the latest data available, released by the Chinese Commerce Ministry in November 2023, bilateral trade volume between China and Sierra Leone in 2022 reached $1.34 billion, a year-on-year surge of 52.4 percent. The direct investment stock of Chinese enterprises in Sierra Leone amounted to $87.5 million by the end of 2022. 

The minister thanked China for assisting Sierra Leone's infrastructure needs by constructing roads, bridges and major buildings.

"It is not a theory. We see the building. We see the bridge. We see the National Stadium. We see the investment from China has improved the lives of our people and the things that we see in our country," Bah told Xinhua.

The minister said the Belt and Road Initiative proposed by China has brought real benefits to Sierra Leone, and extolled other initiatives China has championed, which he said will benefit the Global South and beyond.

Bah expressed hope that Bio's state visit would help deepen the friendship between Sierra Leone and China and help the West African country secure significant investments in Bio's priority areas such as food security, youth development, technology and infrastructure.

"We want to transform this country, to industrialize this country, and to transform the infrastructure. We want to make sure that this country has the right technologies, and we see China as a major part that will help us to achieve our dreams," the minister added.

Mao Ning, a spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, briefed reporters on Monday about China's expectations for the visit by the president of Sierra Leone.

"We believe that President Bio's visit will inject new impetus into the all-round, in-depth growth of the relations between China and Sierra Leone and bring about more good outcomes of friendly cooperation," she said.