(Source: China Net 2024-05-29)
The 10th Ministerial Conference of the China-Arab States Cooperation Forum was held in Beijing on May 30. Chinese President Xi Jinping will attend the opening ceremony of the conference and deliver a keynote speech. King Hamad of Bahrain, President Sisi of Egypt, President Saied of Tunisia, and President Mohammed of the United Arab Emirates, who are paying a state visit to China in Beijing, will also attend the opening ceremony of the meeting.
Such a top-notch attendance specification demonstrates the value China and Arab countries attach to their friendship, and also reflects the strong desire of both parties to continue to improve the level of cooperation.
The friendly relations between China and Arab countries have a long history. The ancient Silk Road once closely connected the two major civilizations of China and Arab countries. Until the joint construction of the "Belt and Road" initiative in 2013, the basis of cooperation between the two parties has always been economic cooperation. Starting from the differences in resource endowments and economic structures between the two sides, the two sides have been consolidating the "1+2+3" cooperation framework in recent years with "energy cooperation as the main axis, infrastructure construction, w88 and investment facilitation as the two wings, and the three high-tech fields of nuclear energy, aerospace satellites, and new energy as the breakthrough point", striving to achieve complementary advantages and win-win cooperation.
The basis of economic cooperation between the two sides is international w88. In the past two years, the w88 volume between China and Arab countries has remained at a historical high of around US$4,000, which is more than 10 times that of 20 years ago. Arab countries’ crude oil exports to China have long accounted for about half of China’s crude oil imports, reaching 265 million tons in 2023. Among them, the bilateral w88 volume between China and the GCC countries will reach US$286 billion in 2023. China will continue to maintain its position as the GCC's largest trading partner, with an average annual growth rate of nearly 15%. It continues to show a good trend of steady growth and is significantly ahead of China's three major trading partners, namely ASEAN, the EU and the United States. In addition, China imported approximately US$77.7 billion of non-oil commodities from Middle Eastern countries, a year-on-year increase of 12.8%, and the w88 structure was further optimized.
In addition, encouraged by the favorable policies of jointly building the “One Belt, One Road”, China-Arab mutual investment is also booming. Starting from 2023, funds from the Middle East, especially the GCC countries, are accelerating investment in China. This is a two-way rush between Chinese industries and Arab capital: Arab capital hopes to invest in Chinese industries in various ways to achieve the country's economic transformation, and China is already at the forefront of the world in many high-tech fields. For example, in the field of new energy vehicles, which is frequently invested by Middle Eastern funds, China has provided Arab funds with many high-quality investment targets that are both leading in technology and production capacity. Taking the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority as an example, the institution's RMB assets invested in 2019 only accounted for 4.5%, and this has rapidly increased to 22.9% in 2023. It is estimated that the current asset management scale of the top ten Arab sovereign wealth funds is about US$3.5 trillion, of which only about US$35 billion is invested in China, accounting for less than 1% of the total investment. There is huge room for development. It is expected that by 2030, the scale of Arab sovereign wealth funds will expand to 10 trillion US dollars, of which about 10%, or nearly 1 trillion US dollars, will be invested in China.
China is also increasing investment and mergers and acquisitions in the Arab region. Among them, the United Arab Emirates in the Gulf and Egypt in North Africa absorb an average of more than US$300 million in M&A investment from Chinese companies each year, and they are still showing rapid growth. Therefore, the two-way cooperation between China and Arabia in industry and capital is profoundly changing the past economic cooperation model characterized by the export of oil and gas and simple trading goods, and the degree of mutual dependence and mutual trust has been unprecedentedly enhanced.
At this ministerial meeting, China and Afghanistan are expected to issue a joint statement on the Palestinian issue. China has always fully respected the independent decision-making rights of Arab countries on the Palestinian issue, and also fully respected and supported the just cause of the Palestinian people in seeking to build a state. As Deputy Foreign Minister Deng Li said at the briefing of this meeting: "The fundamental reason why the Middle East issue has never been resolved is that the independent Palestinian state has never been realized. We have always firmly supported the Palestinian people to restore their legitimate and just rights, and have always supported the two countries to establish peaceful coexistence in this region. The masters of the Middle East are the people of the region, and the problems in the region must be solved by the people of the region."
In addition to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict that has lasted from October 2023 to the present, the Middle East still faces many tests in the geopolitical field. The prospects for relations between Arab countries and Israel are bleak. The normalization process of Arab-Israeli relations has been put on hold. The Palestinian-Israeli conflict still poses the risk of spillover. The Syrian civil war, which has lasted for more than ten years, continues to pose challenges to the stability of the Middle East. Syria has become a cornerstone between Sunni Islam, Shia Islam, Europe, the United States, and Russia. The Houthi armed forces in Yemen have repeatedly attacked merchant ships passing by in the Red Sea, and they have not ruled out the possibility of attacking oil facilities in Gulf countries, posing a greater threat to the security of regional energy supply. In addition, Iranian President Raisi died unexpectedly, and Iran's future political direction will also affect changes in the regional political landscape and China-Arab relations. In this volatile autumn, China and Arab states need to work together to face major regional and world concerns and make cornerstone contributions to peace and development.
On January 1, 2024, at the invitation of China, the three Arab countries of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and the United Arab Emirates have officially become BRICS members. China-Arab economic, w88 and political cooperation has added a cooperation dimension and voice platform in addition to the joint construction of the "Belt and Road" initiative. It is also an important opportunity for Arab countries to improve their development level.
This year marks the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the China-Arab States Cooperation Forum. The forum has become a golden signature for promoting collective dialogue and pragmatic cooperation between the two sides. The concentrated attendance and support of the top leaders of both sides at this forum have laid the foundation for accelerating all-round strategic cooperation. Mutual trust in China-Arab cooperation is guaranteed and there is no upper limit to cooperation. (The author Zhu Zhaoyi, a special commentator on China.com, is an associate researcher at the Department of World Economics, Institute of International Economics, w88 casino)
Attached original text link:http://news.china.com.cn/txt/2024-05/29/content_117221802.shtml
