President Xi Jinping congratulated Bajram Begaj on taking office as Albania's president, saying he is willing to work with Begaj to strengthen bilateral ties to the benefit of the two nations.

Xi made the remarks on Sunday in a message to Begaj, who was elected president by Albania's Parliament on June 4.

Xi said in the message that China and Albania enjoy a profound traditional friendship. In recent years, he said, both countries have worked to enhance their political mutual trust, intensify their policy communication and advance their pragmatic cooperation by jointly building the Belt and Road and through the Cooperation Between China and Central and Eastern European Countries platform.

Bilateral relations have made new progress, he added.

Noting that he attaches great importance to the development of the China-Albania relationship, Xi said he is willing to work with the new Albanian president to deepen exchanges between the two countries in various sectors and to consolidate the results of the countries' mutually beneficial cooperation to benefit the two countries and their people.

In another development, Xi sent a congratulatory message on Saturday to his Egyptian counterpart, Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi, on Egypt's 70th national day.

In the message, Xi said that in recent years, Egypt has steadfastly followed the path of independence, made vigorous progress in national development, and played an important role in regional and global affairs.

Noting that he and Sisi both attended the recent High-level Dialogue on Global Development, Xi said they have pushed for fruitful results from the event and sent a strong message of the times for common development and prosperity.

Saying he attaches great importance to the development of China-Egypt relations, Xi emphasized that he is ready to work with Sisi to firmly support each other, advance the joint construction of the Belt and Road, cooperate on the implementation of the Global Development Initiative and safeguard the common interests of developing countries.

He also underlined the need for both countries to firmly march toward the goal of building the China-Egypt community with a shared future in the new era in order to benefit the two countries and their people.