By Manal Abdel Fattah
Ambassador Liao Liqiang, Chinese Ambassador to Cairo, said that in the past year, Chinese-Arab relations achieved breakthroughs in several areas, as the two sides made strong and active efforts to implement the outcomes of the first China-Arab summit, and worked to enable the “Belt and Road” cooperation to fully include 22 countries are members of the Arab League, and they held the first China-Arab Youth Development Forum and the first China-Arab exchanges on human rights.
He added, during a celebration of the traditional Chinese Spring Festival in Cairo: The League of Arab States became the first regional organization to sign a document with the Chinese side regarding the implementation of the Global Civilization Initiative, which brought Chinese-Arab relations into a new development stage.
The ambassador referred to the recent holding of the Central Conference on Foreign Affairs Work in Beijing, where General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, Xi Jinping, attended the conference and delivered an important speech in which he explained the profound significance of building a community with a shared future for mankind as a scientific system in a comprehensive manner, and set the noble goal. For big-country diplomacy with Chinese characteristics in the new era, he called for multipolarity characterized by equality and order and economic globalization based on win-win and embrace, mobilizing the efforts of all countries to confront challenges and achieve common prosperity.
He added: The concepts that the conference calls for respond to the general needs of all peoples for peace, development and cooperation, and I am confident that China’s relations with the many developing countries, including Egypt, are on the verge of broader prospects for development against the new historical background.
The ambassador said that this year marks the 10th anniversary of the establishment of comprehensive strategic partnership relations between China and Egypt, and the 20th anniversary of the founding of the China-Arab Cooperation Forum.
He continued that at the beginning of the New Year, Member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, Foreign Minister Wang Yi, visited Egypt as the first destination of his tour, and the visit was crowned with success.
During the visit, President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi met with Mr. Wang Yi, and Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry and Secretary-General of the League of Arab States Ahmed Aboul Gheit held a fruitful meeting with him, where they discussed the prospects for developing Chinese-Egyptian relations and Chinese-Arab relations in an in-depth manner and determined the roadmap for them. In addition to signing the second five-year executive program on Chinese-Egyptian comprehensive strategic partnership relations.
The Chinese side, along with both the Egyptian and Arab sides, also issued a joint statement on the Palestinian issue, together releasing a strong, joint voice for an immediate and comprehensive ceasefire, implementing the relevant UN resolutions, establishing effective mechanisms for humanitarian aid, and pushing the translation of the “two-state solution” into reality.
The ambassador added: We have reason to be certain that Chinese-Egyptian relations and Chinese-Arab relations will definitely achieve a greater development leap on the current basis, continuing: Let us hope together that Chinese-Egyptian cooperation will flourish in various fields, opening a decade that will brighten Chinese-Egyptian relations and Chinese-Arab relations.
