President Xi Jinping hailed on Wednesday the traditional friendship between China and Nigeria and called on the two countries to make positive contributions to building a closer China-Africa community with a shared future.

Xi made the remark as he exchanged congratulatory messages with his Nigerian counterpart, Muhammadu Buhari, on the 50th anniversary of the two countries' establishing diplomatic relations.

In his message, Xi said that China and Nigeria have seen their traditional friendship growing stronger, practical cooperation bearing fruitful results and coordination on global and regional affairs becoming closer over the past half century.

In recent years, the China-Nigeria strategic partnership has shown good momentum in development and brought concrete benefits to the people of both countries, he said.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic broke out, Xi said, China has joined hands with African countries, including Nigeria, to combat the virus, and this has demonstrated the brotherly friendship between China and Africa, which features solidarity in the face of adversity.

Xi said that he highly values developing China's relationship with Nigeria and stands ready to work with Buhari to take the 50th anniversary as an opportunity to further advance the traditional bilateral friendship and to expand cooperation in various fields within the frameworks of the Belt and Road Initiative and the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation.

He suggested that the two countries make positive contributions to building a closer China-Africa community with a shared future.

Buhari said in his message that Nigeria and China have been working closely, with fruitful results achieved in bilateral cooperation over the past 50 years.

Nigeria appreciates China's support in such areas as railway, highway and electric power building and national defense, he said.

China has been fighting together with Nigeria and other African countries against COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic and this enriches the significance of the bilateral ties.

Buhari noted that while they face major global challenges, Nigeria and China have both been upholding multilateralism and the principle of non-interference in other countries' internal affairs, as well as firmly defending the common interests of developing countries. Nigeria stands ready to work with China to ensure a successful FOCAC gathering this year, he said.

In a move honoring the pledge that Xi made in June at the Extraordinary China-Africa Summit on Solidarity Against COVID-19, China made a gift this week of a shipment of vaccines to Equatorial Guinea, the first shipment of vaccine aid the Chinese government has sent to Africa.