“The Arab and Chinese sides walk with confident and steady steps toward building a community with a shared future,” said Arab-Chinese Friendship Societies chairman.
CAIRO, June 2 (Xinhua) — The China-Arab States Cooperation Forum (CASCF) plays a pivotal role and contributes greatly to building a China-Arab community with a shared future, Ali Yousuf Al-Shareef, chairman of the Association of Arab-Chinese Friendship Societies, has said.
The 10th Ministerial Conference of the CASCF was held in the Chinese capital of Beijing on Thursday.
“The Arab and Chinese sides walk with confident and steady steps toward building a community with a shared future,” Al-Shareef told Xinhua in a recent interview.
The accomplishments of the CASCF in strengthening ties, promoting common interests and boosting understanding greatly contribute to the aspired shared future, he said.
He cited the concept of building a community with a shared future for mankind proposed by Chinese President Xi Jinping as the most significant global proposal in the past 20 years.
The Chinese and Arab sides are keen on building a China-Arab community with a shared future, Al-Shareef said, adding that this tendency is apparent in both sides’ endeavors to enhance people-to-people and cultural exchanges, trade, investment, as well as economic and political cooperation.
Al-Shareef, who served as ambassador of Sudan to China, praised the “very positive results” of the CASCF over the last two decades in the political, security, military, economic, trade and cultural fields at the bilateral and multilateral levels.
China has forged comprehensive strategic partnerships or strategic partnerships with 14 Arab countries and the Arab League. All of the 22 Arab countries and the Arab League have signed deals with China on Belt and Road cooperation.
On Jan. 30, 2004, China and the Arab League jointly announced the establishment of the CASCF. Over two decades, 19 mechanisms of cooperation in various fields between the two sides have been established.
Al-Shareef underscored that political cooperation is one of the most important frameworks for the CASCF, noting that politics was the first field of cooperation between China and Arab countries since the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949.
All Arab countries have been and are still committed to the one-China policy and strongly supported restoring China’s lawful seat in the United Nations, he said.
Meanwhile, China maintained its clear and fixed stance on advocating for the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people to have an independent state based on the 1967 borders and with East Jerusalem as its capital, Al-Shareef added.
China exerts tremendous efforts to maintain stability and safety in the Arab region when the latter encounters conflicts, he said, confirming that the Chinese stance on the Gaza conflict is highly visible at the international level.
At the economic level, Al-Shareef said economic cooperation provided a positive environment for investment and trade between the two sides.
He also spoke highly of China’s role in reconstructions in Libya, Syria, Yemen, Sudan and Somalia due to the Asian country’s experience in infrastructure.
The former Sudanese diplomat said that the Arab and Chinese sides also pay great attention to cultural cooperation by promoting people-to-people exchanges and understanding.
He believes that Arab-Chinese relations have two essential aspects: the first is the official one, like the CASCF, and the second involves culture and people-to-people interactions, like the Association of Arab-Chinese Friendship Societies that was established in 2006.
