The Secretary-General of the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf, Dr. Nayef Al-Hajraf, held a meeting with State Counselor and Minister of Foreign Affairs of China Wang Yi, in Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, China, during which they discussed views on the Gulf-Chinese relations and international and regional issues of common interest.
In a joint statement, the Chinese side highly appreciated the important achievements made by the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf since its establishment 40 years ago and supports a greater role for the Council in international and regional affairs.
The General Secretariat of the Cooperation Council expressed its congratulations on the important developmental achievements of the Chinese people and highly appreciates the great weight and important role of the Chinese side in international and regional affairs.
The two sides expressed satisfaction with the development of the Gulf-Chinese relations and stressed that strengthening the Gulf-Chinese cooperation is in line with the basic and long-term interests of both sides, looking forward to continuing to raise the bilateral relations to a new level and enhancing mutual support, in a way that better safeguards common interests.
The two sides agreed:
- The necessity of establishing strategic partnership relations between the GCC and the Republic of China as soon as possible, with the aim of further deepening mutual cooperation, raising the level of practical cooperation and facing challenges, in order to achieve common development and serve common interests.
- Signing the joint action plan for the strategic dialogue between the GCC and China between 2022-2025 as soon as possible, in order to expand new horizons and expand areas of cooperation between the two sides.
- It is necessary to complete the negotiations on the free trade agreement between the Cooperation Council and China as soon as possible, and to establish the free trade area between the Cooperation Council and China at an early date, in order to raise the level of liberalization and facilitation of trade and the governance of commercial and economic interests of the two sides.
- Holding the fourth round of the strategic dialogue between the Gulf Cooperation Council and China in Riyadh, the capital of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, in a timely manner for both sides, in order to enhance strategic communication between the two sides, follow up on their development programs, and plan relations and cooperation between the Gulf Cooperation Council and the Republic of China in the future.