ADDIS ABABA, June 22 -- Visiting Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Wednesday highlighted the importance of implementing the comprehensive strategic partnership of cooperation between China and Ethiopia when holding talks with Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn here.

Under the leaderships of the two countries, China-Ethiopia relations have seen comprehensive and rapid development in the recent years, Wang said.

The foreign minister expressed China's keen interest to deepen China-Ethiopia cooperation in six priority areas: exchanges on governing a state, peace and security, capacity cooperation, human resources, aviation and coordination on global and regional issues.

For his part, Hailemariam said Ethiopia is willing to take the Belt and Road Initiative as an opportunity to speed up the transformation of the Ethiopian economy.

The Belt and Road Initiative proposed by China in 2013 consists of the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road. It aims to build a trade and infrastructure network connecting Asia with Europe and Africa along and beyond the ancient Silk Road trade routes.

Becoming China's comprehensive strategic partner of cooperation has injected an important impetus into the development of the bilateral relations, he said.

The prime minister also commended China for its long-standing support for Ethiopia and fully agreed on the six priority areas of cooperation proposed by the Chinese side.