Chinese President Xi Jinping visited Arab leaders in the Saudi capital on Friday for key summits with GCC and Arab states.
Chinese President Xi Jinping praised Qatar for organising a “successful” FIFA World Cup tournament during the 42nd Gulf summit held on Friday.
Qatar’s Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani held official talks with the Chinese president on the sidelines of the China summits in Riyadh held to discuss cooperation with Arab and Gulf countries, according to a statement.
The summit’s leaders praised Qatar for its successful World Cup hosting and contribution to cultural and intellectual cooperation on a global scale.
The Qatari Amir thanked president Xi for his appreciation and stressed the importance of holding such major sports tournaments in the Arab world and Asia.
Meanwhile, the summit’s leaders also condemned the malicious media campaigns targeting Qatar, according to the statement.
Among the heads of states who attended the summits were Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El Sisi, Libya’s Presidency Council head Mohammed Al Menfi, and Tunisian President Kais Saied. Leaders from Lebanon, Iraq, Palestine, and other countries were also set attend.
GCC leaders and China reviewed the strategic partnership relations and aspects of their development in various fields, including economics, investment, energy, and industry.
They also discussed “the most prominent issues on the regional and international arenas of common interest”.
President Xi expressed China’s support for an end to the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories and voiced frustration over the “historical injustice” suffered by Palestinians.
“It is not possible to continue the historical injustice suffered by the Palestinians,” the Chinese president said on Friday at the opening of the Riyadh-Gulf-Chinese Summit for Cooperation and Development in Saudi Arabia, according to media reports.
Xi called for granting Palestine “full membership in the United Nations” and said Beijing “supports the two-state solution and the establishment of a Palestinian state on the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital”.
Summit leaders also condemned terrorism, regardless of its source, and pledged to strengthen regional and international efforts to prevent the financing, arming, and recruitment of terrorist groups.
They called on Iraq to respect the sovereignty of Kuwait and not violate international resolutions and agreements, in particular Security Council Resolution No. 833 regarding the demarcation of borders between the two countries.
The Summit leaders also welcomed Qatar’s hosting of the second part of the Fifth United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries, which will take place on March 5-9, 2023, at the level of heads of state and government.
The GCC nations have been significant partners for China for the past 41 years, according to the Chinese Foreign Ministry in Beijing.
President Xi’s trip to Saudi Arabia is his third outside of China since the Covid-19 pandemic. He arrived in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday, his first visit to the country since 2016.
On the third and final day of his visit, Xi said he considered the Chinese-Arab summit a “defining event in the history of Chinese-Arab relations”.
Relations between the two “are based on mutual interest in peace and harmony,” he said.
