President Xi Jinping’s visit to Saudi Arabia, where he attended the China-Arab States Summit and the China-Gulf Cooperation Council summit, paid an official state visit to Saudi Arabia, and held 20 bilateral meetings with other leaders, is hailed as a tremendous success by China. “It is the largest and highest-level diplomatic event between China and the Arab world since the founding of the People’s Republic of China,” explained Foreign Ministry Spokesman Wang Wenbin. “It thus has a milestone significance.”
Saudi Arabia and China have agreed to host biennial meetings between the heads of state, and to mutually strengthen Chinese and Arabic language instruction in their countries.
Good relations with the GCC countries do not require abandoning good relations with Iran. “China and Iran enjoy traditional friendship,” Wang explained. “The GCC countries and Iran are all China’s friends, and neither China-GCC relations nor China-Iran relations are targeted at any third party.”
