BEIJING: Chinese President Xi Jinping said at the opening ceremony of the 10th ministerial conference of the China-Arab States Cooperation Forum on Thursday that China is ready to work with the Arab side to put in place “five cooperation frameworks” to step up the building of a China-Arab community with a shared future.
The Chinese president also said that the war in Gaza should not continue indefinitely and reaffirmed China’s stance to promote lasting settlement for the Palestinian issue.
At his keynote speech, President Xi said that China-Arab relations have kept scaling new heights since the beginning of the new century. At the first China-Arab States Summit in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in December 2022, he and the Arab colleagues agreed unanimously to build a China-Arab community with a shared future in the new era. China is satisfied with the progress and it will work with the Arab side to enhance the role of the Summit in providing strategic guidance for continued leapfrog growth of China-Arab relations.
Xi announced that China will host the second China-Arab States Summit in 2026, which will be another milestone in China-Arab relations.
During the keynote speech, President Xi also noted that the Middle East is a land bestowed with broad prospects for development, but the war is still raging on it. Since last October, the Palestinian-Israeli conflict has escalated drastically, throwing the people into tremendous sufferings.
War should not continue indefinitely. Justice should not be absent forever. Commitment to the two-state solution should not be wavered at will, said Xi. China firmly supports the establishment of an independent state of Palestine that enjoys full sovereignty based on the 1967 borders and 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.
Analysts said that in the keynote speech, President Xi has systematically put forward new initiatives to promote pragmatic cooperation between China and Arab states in various fields, including on innovation, finance, energy, trade and people-to-people exchanges and also expounding on China’s policy in the Middle East, which would guide the building of a China-Arab community with a shared future and promote a just and reasonable solution to the Palestinian issue to contribute to peace and stability in the Middle East.
The 10th ministerial conference of the China-Arab States Cooperation Forum adopted a China-Arab states joint statement on the Palestinian issue, the Beijing Declaration, and an execution plan of the forum for 2024-2026.
According to the Chinese Foreign Ministry, the joint statement on the Palestinian issue has expressed that China and Arab countries share deep concern over the humanitarian crisis caused by the prolonged Gaza conflict, and stressed the firm stance and key consensus shared by the two sides on the following issues: promoting cease-fire for Gaza, ensuring humanitarian aids, opposing forced displacement of Palestinian people, supporting Palestine to become a full member of the UN, and promoting settlement for the Palestinian issue based on the two-state solution.
Bilateral meetings between top leaders of China and some Arab countries were also held in recent days. On Thursday, Xi held talks with President of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan. On Wednesday, Xi held talks with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi.
‘Five cooperation frameworks’ to take China-Arab ties to new level, says Wang Yi
The “five cooperation frameworks” that China has proposed to work with Arab states will take China-Arab cooperation in the new era to a new level, said Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi at the 10th ministerial conference of the China-Arab States Cooperation Forum (CASCF) in Beijing on Thursday.
Delivering a keynote speech at the opening ceremony of the conference, Chinese President Xi Jinping said China is ready to work with the Arab side to put in place “five cooperation frameworks” to step up the building of a China-Arab community with a shared future.
The five frameworks consist of 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.
Xi also announced that China will host the second China-Arab States Summit in 2026.
That will be another milestone in China-Arab relations, said Wang, who is also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, at the ministerial conference.
Wang urged both sides to further enhance strategic mutual trust and firmly support each other’s core interests, deepen pragmatic cooperation and promote higher levels of mutual benefit and win-win results, strengthen international cooperation and jointly maintain the correct direction of global governance, and strengthen the building of the CASCF to open up a bright future for the China-Arab community with a shared future.
The meeting was co-chaired by Wang, Mauritanian Foreign Minister Mohamed Salem Ould Merzouk, who chairs the Arab League Council of Foreign Ministers, and Ahmed Aboul Gheit, secretary-general of the League of Arab States, and attended by foreign ministers and representatives of Arab states.
The 10th ministerial conference of the China-Arab States Cooperation Forum is held in Beijing, China, May 30, 2024.
The attendees described Xi’s proposal on the future development direction of China-Arab relations and the idea of building the “five cooperation frameworks” as encouraging, saying they will inject strong impetus into the building of a new type of partnership between Arab states and China and accelerate the building of a China-Arab community with a shared future.
The Arab side is ready to further strengthen strategic coordination with China, speed up the implementation of the outcomes of the first China-Arab States Summit and this ministerial conference, and make solid preparations for the second China-Arab States Summit to achieve deeper strategic mutual trust, higher quality mutual benefit and win-win results, and higher levels of inclusiveness and mutual learning, according to the attendees.
The 10th ministerial conference of the China-Arab States Cooperation Forum adopted the Beijing Declaration, the CASCF execution plan for 2024-2026 and a China-Arab states joint statement on the Palestinian issue.
