On November 7, 2009, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao held talks with his Egyptian counterpart Ahmed Nazef in Cairo.

Wen said that, despite all the international and regional changes that had taken place, China and Egypt had always based their relations on the principle of mutual respect, mutual help and common development. Since the establishment of strategic cooperative ties between the two countries 10 years ago, political mutual trust had been deepened and the cooperative fields expanded, which also helped enhance China's relations with the Arab world and Africa and boosted South-South cooperation. "We are encouraged by all these achievements and are very confident about the future of bilateral relations," he said.

Wen said that China and Egypt, both ancient civilizations and large developing countries, have great influence on the international arena. China is ready to strengthen all-round cooperation with Egypt, enrich the connotation of strategic cooperation and make new contributions to promoting harmonious and sustainable development of the world.

Wen said the implementation outline for deepening strategic and cooperative relations between China and Egypt has strongly pushed forward their pragmatic cooperation in all areas. China has invested more in Egypt and people-to-people exchanges had also greatly increased. The Premier suggested the two sides should focus on the following five aspects when conducting cooperation in the future: First, both countries should strengthen coordination with each other to bring success to the China-Egypt Suez economic and trade cooperation zone project. He said China is willing to introduce more capable Chinese companies with good credit to do business in the zone and invest more in Egypt. Second, the two sides should promote cooperation in energy and infrastructure construction such as communication and transportation, and make steady headway in major projects, Wen said. Third, the Chinese leader said both sides should take measures to counter the negative impacts of the global financial crisis and expand imports from each other to maintain a steady growth in bilateral trade. Fourth, Wen suggested both sides should jointly explore markets in Africa, the Middle East and Europe using the two countries' complementary strengths to bring benefits for both on a wider range. Fifth, Wen proposed that exchanges between China and Egypt in cultural and educational fields should be deepened, especially exchanges among youth to consolidate China-Egypt traditional friendship.

Nazef congratulated Wen on the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China. He said the two countries had a firm traditional friendship and that the Egyptian government and people were grateful for China's long-standing assistance in Egypt's social and economic development, adding that he was glad to see the enormous achievements made by China. He also spoke highly of the substantial achievements made by both sides in such areas as politics, the economy and culture in the past decade. Nazef expressed hope for further economic and trade cooperation between the two countries in face of the current global financial crisis, and welcomed more Chinese companies to invest in Egypt and participate in Egypt’s economic construction. Egypt is willing to work with the Chinese side to advance the construction of the Suez economic and trade cooperation zone, strengthen cooperation in technology transfer and personnel training and jointly open up third-party markets, Nazef said. Egypt is also committed to promoting bilateral cultural exchange.

After the meeting, both leaders witnessed the signing of agreements on economic, technological, cultural and customs cooperation and unveiled the plaque for the Suez economic and trade cooperation zone. Wen also conferred the cultural exchange contribution awards on the award-winning Egyptian celebrities and watched the performance given by Egyptian youngsters in Chinese. The site was filled with laughter and applause.