President Hu Jintao's upcoming four-nation tour will be the
first important foreign visit for Chinese leaders in 2004,
officials with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in Beijing
Monday.
Hu will pay a state visit to France, Egypt, Gabon and Algeria
from Jan. 26 to Feb. 4 at the invitation of French President
Jacques Chirac, Egyptian President Muhammed Hosni Mubarak, Gabonese
President El Hadj Omar Bongo Ondimba, and Algerian President
Abdelaziz Bouteflika.
Liu Haixing, deputy director of the ministry's Department of
West European Affairs, said the Chinese president's France tour
from Jan. 26 to 29 will coincide with the China Year in France. Hu
is expected to attend some events of the year-long cultural
exchange program.
Hu will address the national assembly, the first such
arrangement made by a Chinese leader in the French parliament. The
two sides are expected to sign deals on the manufacture of DVD
players and TV sets, glass production and atomic energy, Liu
said.
No agreement will be inked yet for the Beijing-Shanghai
high-speed rail system because the project is still "in the early
feasibility study period," Liu said.
On Hu's Egypt trip between Jan. 29 to Feb. 1, the two countries
are expected to sign documents on economic and technological
cooperation, China's preferential loans to Egypt and investment
memoranda on a special economic zone in the Suez gulf, said Zhai
Jun, director of the ministry's Department of West Asian and North
African Affairs.
Hu's Gabon trip, between Feb. 1 to 3, is the first visit of a
Chinese president to the country in the three decades since the two
countries forged diplomatic ties.
Hu will address the Gabonese parliament and expound China's
policy on developing and strengthening ties with Africa, said Zhao
Jiangping, counselor of the ministry's Department of African
Affairs.
"The two countries will discuss possibilities for energy
cooperation," Zhao said.
China and Algeria will sign agreements on economic and
technological cooperation and higher education during Hu's visit to
the country from Feb. 3 to 4, said Zhai Jun, adding that China may
also ink an energy cooperation deal with Algeria during the
visit.
(Xinhua News Agency January 20, 2004)