New envoy vows to uphold ties with Cameroon

Wei Wenhua took over as the new Chinese ambassador to Cameroon on Jan 6 and pledged to continue the friendly bilateral relationship.

Wei supplants Wo Ruidi as ambassador.

Born in 1957, Wei began his career as a diplomat in 1985 and has served China in a number of African countries. From 2007 to 2011, he was the Chinese ambassador to Cote d'Ivoire and from 2003 to 2006, he was China's ambassor to Mali. From 1993 to 1996, he served as a deputy director and deputy secretary-general at China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Cameroon and China established diplomatic relations on March 26, 1971.

At a welcoming ceremony that thanked him for his service to Cameroon, Wo said "Cameroon is a strategic partner. There are high levels of exchanges between our countries and there is an important economic cooperation between us. I am at the end of my mission and I came to say goodbye to president of the Republic Paul Biya."

On stage, Wo Ruidi and Cameroon's president revisited the cooperative measures between the two countries. Wo pointed out that around twenty agreements were in recent years signed and that the two sides recently agreed on banking, tourism, trade and innovation deals.

The former Chinese ambassador to Cameroon also said his goodbyes to Jean Nkuet, the general-secretary of the Cameroon People's Democratic Movement, the nation's ruling party.

"We used to have exchanges between CPDM and the Communist Party of China. The Communist Party has in the past organized forums and seminars for which CPDM's militants have been invited to reinforce the mutual confidence between both political parties," said Wo.

Wei said he must uphold the sound bilateral ties by helping to realize a number of Chinese projects in Cameroon, such as the Douala water supply program and the Kribi deep seaport project.

(China Daily Africa Weekly 01/16/2015 page3)