This content was posted on December 9, 2022 – 3:28 PM December 9, 2022 – 3:28 PM
Riyadh, 9 December (EFE) and with whom they have conspired to further strengthen cooperation.
“China is the Arab world’s largest trading partner today,” Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Abulgueit said Monday at a Sino-Arab summit in Riyadh attended by Chinese President Xi Jinping and heads of state and prime ministers from central and eastern Europe North Africa.
In Abulgueit’s words, Arab countries are “always interested in strengthening ties with China,” while noting that this summit “takes relations between the two parties to a deeper level.”
For his part, the Chinese President recalled that trade between China and the Arab world reached $300,000 million over the past decade, while direct investments exceeded $27,000 million.
In the same period, 17 cooperation mechanisms were set up with the Asian giant and hundreds of other projects in different sectors, according to Xi.
“The Sino-Arab Summit will lead us to a brighter future, and China looks forward to starting comprehensive cooperation that promotes mutual interests,” the Chinese president said.
The summit was attended by the presidents of Egypt, Palestine and Tunisia, the kings of Bahrain and Jordan, and the prime ministers of Iraq, Algeria, Morocco and Lebanon, among others.
The meeting also reaffirmed China’s commitment to the Palestinian cause, an issue Xi himself has raised and advocated for the two-state solution, which has the strongest support from the international community; the fight against terrorism and extremism and the conflicts that plague this region.
However, no particularly sensitive issues were raised, such as the situation of the Uyghurs, a Muslim minority who according to several countries are victims of a “genocide” by China.
Egyptian President Abdelfatah al-Sisi, in his speech, pointed to the need to work with China to “create a fairer international system” in which “human rights are not politicized.”
And it is that relations between the Arab countries and China have increased in recent years, in contrast to the United States, which several of these countries accuse of interfering in their internal affairs.
Xi’s visit to Riyadh, the first to the Arab monarchy since 2016, aims to cement China as the Arabs’ main ally, a move Washington views with concern given the Asian giant’s growing influence in this strategic region of the Arab world. EFE
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