President Xi Jinping and Republic of Congo President Denis Sassou Nguesso agreed to further develop bilateral ties and jointly build a high-level China-Africa community with a shared future as they exchanged congratulations on Thursday on the 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations.

Xi said that over the past 60 years, despite changes in the international situation, the two countries have become good friends who trust each other politically and good partners for win-win economic cooperation.

The friendship between China and the Republic of Congo has stood the test of time, he said.

Xi said that recent years have witnessed frequent exchanges between the two countries, the continuous deepening of political mutual trust and the steady progress of practical cooperation, which brought tangible benefits to the people of both nations.

Noting that he highly values developing bilateral relations, Xi expressed his willingness to work with Sassou to take the 60th anniversary of relations as a new starting point to continuously enrich the comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership between the two countries.

Sassou said that the two countries' extensive cooperation based on mutual trust and win-win results has yielded rich fruits, and he is willing to further consolidate his country's friendly cooperation with China.

Since 1964, when China and the Republic of Congo established diplomatic ties, the two countries have engaged in close high-level exchanges.

Sassou, who has visited China 16 times, is among the African leaders who have made the most visits to China. In 2013, Xi chose the African country as one of the destinations for his first overseas trip as the Chinese president.

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said on Thursday that China and the Republic of Congo "are companions with similar visions, sincere partners with mutual trust and loyal friends with mutual support".

According to Mao, China has carried out numerous cooperation projects in the Republic of Congo to support its economic development and improve its people's well-being.

"Thanks to the No 1 National Highway, the journey between its capital Brazzaville and the economic center Pointe-Noire now takes eight hours, compared with a week previously," she said at a regular news briefing in Beijing.

As the new edition of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation will be held in Beijing this year, the spokeswoman said that China will also take the opportunity of the meeting to closely align Chinese modernization with the peaceful development of Africa.

Shen Xiaolei, an associate research fellow at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences' Institute of West Asian and African Studies, said the Republic of Congo is a key partner that is jointly building the Belt and Road with China in Central Africa.

"Looking forward, the economic cooperation between the two countries will continue to focus on areas such as infrastructure construction, trade, energy and agriculture," he said.

China-Africa cooperation is a natural result as China is the largest developing country in the world and Africa is the region most concentrated with developing countries, he said, adding that it is particularly important that they make joint efforts to deal with unprecedented global challenges, such as unilateralism, trade decoupling and an unfair international economic order.