United Arab Emirates President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan hosted China’s Prime Minister Li Qiang in Abu Dhabi on Thursday to debate the strengthening of bilateral relations between the 2 nations.
Sheikh Mohammed mentioned in a publish on X that the 2 mentioned joint efforts to additional increase the Complete Strategic Partnership between the 2 nations.
“The UAE is dedicated to constructing upon 40 years of deep-rooted cooperation with China to attain enduring development, improvement and prosperity for our peoples,” he added.
Li landed within the UAE late on Wednesday for an official go to. “I sit up for [deepening and solidifying the] China-UAE complete strategic partnership and [achieving] extra fruitful ends in exchanges and cooperation in varied fields,” the official Chinese language information company, Xinhua, cited Li as saying upon his arrival on the Zayed Worldwide Airport in Abu Dhabi.
He additional praised the continued development of their relations and expressed hope to additional advance bilateral cooperation in varied fields.
Since establishing diplomatic ties in 1984, China and the UAE have continued to spice up their relations in several sectors. Based on Xinhua, the 2 nations have signed greater than 130 bilateral agreements and memorandums of understanding over the previous 4 many years.
Officers from each nations have exchanged a number of visits prior to now years, together with Sheikh Mohammed’s journey to Beijing in 2019 and extra lately in Could 2024.
China and the UAE upgraded their relations in 2018 with the signing of the Complete Strategic Partnership, which goals to deepen cooperation in varied fields and promote bilateral ties.
The signing got here throughout Chinese language President Xi Jinping’s go to to Abu Dhabi, the primary by a Chinese language head of state to the Gulf nation in 29 years.
In 2023, the amount of non-oil commerce between the 2 nations reached $81 billion, marking a 4.2% improve in comparison with the earlier 12 months, in keeping with Emirates Information Company (WAM). This makes China the UAE’s prime non-oil commerce associate, accounting for 12% of UAE commerce.
Additionally, UAE investments in China amounted to $11.9 billion from 2003 to 2023, together with in sectors like telecommunications, renewable power, transportation, hospitality and rubber. In the meantime, China’s investments within the Gulf nation totaled $7.7 billion throughout the identical interval, in keeping with WAM.
China’s overtures in Arab Gulf
Li’s journey to Abu Dhabi comes someday after he visited Saudi Arabia, the place he met with Sheikh Mohammed and the dominion’s de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. The 2 mentioned methods to additional increase bilateral ties and cooperation in a number of fields reminiscent of power, funding and commerce.
China is looking for to deepen its position and reinforce its ties within the area, notably within the Gulf Cooperation Council (Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE), the place talks to ascertain a free commerce settlement have been ongoing for a number of years now.
Bilateral commerce between China and the Gulf stood at $286.9 billion in 2023, in keeping with Chinese language customs knowledge cited by Reuters. In the meantime, China is among the important importers of Gulf oil, importing about 201 million metric tons of crude oil and 18 million tons of liquefied pure fuel from the GCC nations in 2023, in keeping with knowledge from the Chinese language Nationwide Power Administration.