By our Correspondent
China’s Assistant Foreign Minister and Director-General of the Protocol Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Hong Lei, received the copies of credentials presented by Nigeria’s newly appointed Ambassador to Beijing, Abdulrahman Bello Dambazau.
Dambazau, a retired top Nigerian military general, will be Nigeria’s 15th envoy to Beijing since the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Nigeria.
Dambazau was recently appointed by President Bola Tinubu as Nigeria’s Ambassador to China and subsequently screened and confirmed by the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria alongside other ambassadorial nominees.
The People’s Republic of China and the Federal Republic of Nigeria established diplomatic relations on February 10, 1971. Relations between the two countries have since expanded to the level of Comprehensive Strategic Partnership with growing bilateral trade and strategic cooperation.
Nigeria and China are strategic partners, and they aim to develop a high-level China-Nigeria community with a shared future.
In 2024, during the last FOCAC summit in Beijing, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Nigeria’s President Tinubu had the consensus to upgrade China-Nigeria partnership to a “Comprehensive Strategic Partnership”.
The upgrade, according to the Chinese Ambassador to Nigeria Yu Dunhai, showcased a remarkable boost in China-Nigeria relations after the establishment of the strategic partnership in 2005.
Nigeria is the largest engineering contracting partner of China, the second largest exporting partner, the second and largest exporting market, the third largest trading partner, and important investments destination. (GSF)
