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Farirai Machivenyika Senior Reporter
Chinese Ambassador to Zimbabwe Mr Huang Ping yesterday paid a courtesy call on President Mnangagwa at his Munhumutapa offices to brief him on preparations for his State visit to China next month.

Addressing journalists after the meeting, Ambassador Huang said they were doing all they could to make the visit a success.

“We met the President before his State visit to China and now we are doing everything to make sure that his trip is a successful one,” he said.

“I met the President to get his guidance. We had a very nice talk and we touched on a number of things we need to work together so we could have a successful and fruitful visit.”

Chinese President Mr Xi Jinping invited President Mnangagwa to visit China after he was inaugurated as President in November last year following the resignation of former president Cde Robert Mugabe.

China was the first country to send a special envoy to congratulate President Mnangagwa after he assumed the reins.

Ambassador Huang noted that the two parties discussed issues of mutual concern.

“We also discussed those things that we need to work together and we had a nice meeting, and we got the guidance now,” he said. “We are going to work very hard with different departments to make sure that we can reach (an) agreement before implementation.”

China and Zimbabwe have strong bilateral relations dating back to the days of the liberation struggle.

The Asian country has stood by Zimbabwe in the face of the illegal sanctions imposed by Western countries.

China has also provided the country with aid and loans for various infrastructure development programmes, from power generation, roads to water and sanitation.