The opening ceremony of the 10th ministerial meeting of the China-Arab States Cooperation Forum in Beijing, China, May 30, 2024. /Xinhua
Chinese President Xi Jinping made a keynote speech at the opening ceremony of the 10th ministerial meeting of the China-Arab States Cooperation Forum in Beijing on Thursday.
Here are some highlights of his speech.
China-Arab relations – a model for world peace and stability
Observing that peaceful relations come from mutual respect and lasting security is built on fairness and justice, Xi said China, together with the Arab side, will respect the purposes and principles of the UN Charter, the independent choice of every nation and the reality formed in history.
He said they will strive together for solutions to hotspot issues that uphold fairness and justice and sustain peace and security.
The Yanbu Aramco Sinopec Refining Company (YASREF), a joint venture between Saudi Aramco and China Petrochemical Corporation (Sinopec), is by far China’s largest investment project in Saudi Arabia. /CFP
China to host 2nd China-Arab States Summit in 2026
The China-Arab relations have been scaling new heights since the beginning of the new century, Xi said, adding that China is satisfied with the progress since the first China-Arab States Summit held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in December 2022. Xi announced that China will host the second summit in China in 2026, which will be another milestone in China-Arab relations.
Resolving Palestinian-Israeli conflict
The Chinese president made it clear that justice should not be absent forever, and commitment to the two-state solution should not be wavered at will. He said China firmly supports the establishment of an independent State of Palestine that enjoys full sovereignty based on the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital. It supports Palestine’s full membership in the UN, and supports a more broad-based, authoritative and effective international peace conference.
Xi said that on top of the previous 100 million yuan ($13.8 million) of emergency humanitarian assistance, China will provide an additional 500 million yuan ($68.96 million) of assistance to help ease the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and support post-conflict reconstruction. China will donate $3 million to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East in support of its emergency humanitarian assistance to Gaza.
A truck loaded with humanitarian aid supplies to Gaza provided by the Chinese government waits for departure in Cairo, Egypt, November 27, 2023. /Xinhua
Building China-Arab community with a shared future
In his speech, Xi laid out five frameworks of cooperation with the Arab side to step up the building of a China-Arab community with a shared future: a more dynamic framework for innovation, an expanded framework for investment and finance cooperation, a more multifaceted framework for energy cooperation, a more balanced framework for mutually beneficial economic and trade ties, and a broader framework for people-to-people exchanges.
