On 12 November, Ms. Romarique Sèdami MEDEGAN FAGLA, Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research of the Republic of Benin (MESRS), led a delegation to China University of Geosciences (CUG). President LI Jianwei and heads of relevant university units held talks with the delegation.
President LI Jianwei extended a warm welcome to the Minister and her delegation. He noted that the traditional friendship between China and Benin runs deep and that cooperation in science and education bears directly on the long-term development of bilateral relations, and said he hoped the opening of the 2026 China–Africa Innovation Cooperation and Development Forum in Wuhan would serve as an opportunity to further expand the scope of China–Benin cooperation in science and education. He then outlined the university's strengths in disciplines and research and its record in training students from Benin. CUG, he said, will align its work with Benin's development needs and deepen practical cooperation in three areas — talent training and exchange, technology skills training, and academic research and joint platform development — to contribute to building a China–Africa community with a shared future for the new era.
Minister Medegan Fagla thanked CUG for its warm reception and spoke highly of the university's overall strength in geoscience, acknowledging its sustained contribution to training high-level talent for Benin. Benin, she said, is now working to strengthen its own pool of high-level professionals, and she hoped the visit would serve as an opportunity to build a long-term cooperation mechanism between Beninese universities and CUG, advancing bilateral cooperation in talent development, technology training and joint research platforms to promote steady progress in China–Benin cooperation in science and education.
The talks further consolidated consensus between CUG and its Beninese counterparts on cooperation in science and education. CUG will take the visit as an opportunity to sustain exchanges with Beninese higher education institutions, turn the agreed items into concrete outcomes, and place the Benin partnership within its overall framework for cooperation with Africa, moving its African engagement from individual projects toward an institutionalized, ongoing relationship.
