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President Robert Mugabe and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping congratulate Foreign Affairs Minister Simbarashe Mumbengegwi and the Chinese minister Wang Yi after signing one of the MoUs at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China (top). The two presidents inspect a guard of honour yesterday

From Lloyd Gumbo in BEIJING, China
CHINESE President Xi Jinping has pledged to “comprehensively deepen” his country’s relations with Zimbabwe during a meeting with President Robert Mugabe in Beijing.
President Mugabe, on a week-long state visit to China, inspected a guard of honour mounted by China’s Land Force, Air Force and Sea Force to the sound of a 21-gun salute.

The two leaders then walked past dozens of children holding flowers and miniature flags of both countries into the Great Hall of the People.
President Mugabe and President Xi, joined by their ministers and senior officials, then went into a closed-door meeting that lasted for hours.

Emerging from their meeting, President Xi heaped praise on President Mugabe for the role he played during and after Zimbabwe’s war of independence as he pledged to deepen the “old” friendship between the two countries.

“Your Excellency is a renowned leader of the African national liberation movement,” he said.
“The main founder of the Republic of Zimbabwe and important promoter of African integration. Your Excellency enjoys high prestige in Africa, you’re also an old friend of the Chinese people whom we respect very much.

“The Chinese people value friendship and will never forget those good friends and good brothers who show mutual understanding and support.”
He said the friendship between China and Zimbabwe was founded on the same principles and values since both countries fought imperialism and colonialism.

President Xi said the two countries showed mutual respect for each other, adding that they must endeavour to promote political mutual trust.
“At present, both China and Zimbabwe are at an important phase in our development endeavour and there’re new opportunities facing China-Zimbabwe friendship and cooperation. I’m sure Your Excellency’s visit this time will mark a new starting for our relationship,” the Chinese leader said.

He said he stood ready to work with President Mugabe to “deepen our bilateral relationship and make sure the relationship will create benefits for people in both countries.”

President Mugabe said he was grateful for the invitation by the Chinese government, adding that his government was committed to the relationship between Harare and Beijing.

“I want to thank you for what you’ve just said and assure you that we’re prepared on our part to continue our historical relations and even build on them as we develop our economies and Zimbabwe will naturally as before, being a smaller country, be the beneficiary of this relationship and so I want to assure you of our reciprocal undertaking that we’ll do our best to reciprocate your friendship,” said President Mugabe.

President Mugabe is using his visit to seek Chinese investment and loans to kick-start the government’s five-year economic plan, the Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio-Economic Transformation, especially in the areas of infrastructure development and mechanisation of the agriculture industry.

Earlier in the day, the Zimbabwean leader toured one of the leading computer software and hardware manufacturers, Inspur Group, that also has interests in Zimbabwe.

The firm donated 200 laptops to the President’s Office.