On March 4, 2014, Director-General of Department of African Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Lu Shaye co-chaired the 7th Round of Consultations on African Affairs in Beijing with Joy Hutcheon, Director General for Country Programmes at UK's Department for International Development and Harriet Matthews, Director of the African Department of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO). Both sides had an in-depth exchange of views on the situation and hot-spot issues in Africa, the international issues involving Africa, China-Africa and UK-Africa cooperation, as well as China-UK-Africa cooperation and other topics.