Signed article says visit to usher in a new era in China's relations with the Arab world.
The video screens on buildings in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, display slogans in Arabic and Chinese welcome President Xi Jinping's visit to the Middle East country and celebrate China-Saudi Arabia friendship. WANG DONGZHEN XINHUA China will work with Arab states to carry forward their traditional friendship, to build a China-Arab community with a shared future in the new era, and to expand cooperation in areas such as food, energy, investment, financing and medical services, President Xi Jinping said.
In a signed article published in the Saudi newspaper Al Riyadh on Thursday, Xi said China and Arab states will continue to hold high standards of non-interference in internal affairs, firmly support each other in safeguarding sovereignty and territorial integrity, and jointly uphold international fairness and justice.
The article was published one day after Xi arrived in Riyadh for the first China-Arab States Summit, the first China-Gulf Cooperation Council Summit and a state visit to Saudi Arabia. It was Xi's first visit to the Middle Eastern nation since 2016.
He said that the Arab people value independence, oppose external interference, stand up to power politics and highhandedness, and always seek to make progress.
He praised the Arab states for firmly supporting the one-China principle and supporting China in safeguarding its core interests.
China supports Arab states in upholding sovereignty, independence, and territorial integrity. The president said that China's support for Arab states has been unwavering and consistent on issues such as the Palestinian question.
China has set up 20 Confucius Institutes and two Confucius Classrooms in Arab states, with more than 40 Chinese universities teaching Arabic as a major, contributing inexhaustible energy to growing Sino-Arab friendship.
Xi called for the two sides to continue to advocate for peace, development, equity, justice, democracy and freedom, as common values of humanity, to replace estrangement and the clash of civilizations with exchanges and mutual learning, and to promote understanding and affinity between their peoples.
As for ties between China and the Gulf Cooperation Council, Xi noted that China has been the largest trading partner of the GCC and its largest export market of petrochemical products. In 2021, two-way trade exceeded $230 billion, and China's imports of crude oil from GCC countries topped 200 million metric tons.
He said that China will strengthen their traditional friendship and deepen mutual trust because of the establishment and consolidation of the China-GCC strategic partnership.
He said Beijing would work with the GCC to foster a new pattern of multifaceted energy cooperation, accelerate new development in financial and investment cooperation, cultivate new highlights in people-to-people exchanges, and explore new areas of innovation cooperation.
Xi also underlined Beijing's willingness to take the visit as an opportunity to strengthen its strategic partnership with Riyadh, calling on both sides to give each other understanding and support, and advocate for independence and oppose external interference.
He said that we will further synergize China's Belt and Road Initiative and Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030, deepen and substantiate practical cooperation in all areas, and increase the convergence of interests and people-to-people connectivity between the two countries.