RIYADH – Chinese President Xi Jinping affirmed his visit to Saudi Arabia to participate with Arab friends in the first China-Arab States Summit and the China-Gulf Co-operation Council Summit is “designed as a trip of building on the past and more importantly, of opening up a better future.”
“The visit will carry forward our traditional friendship, and mark a new era in China’s relations with the Arab world, with Arab states of the Gulf, and with Saudi Arabia,” added the Chinese president in an article published Thursday on the Saudi newspaper Al Riyadh, as he is attending the first China-Arab States Summit and the China-Gulf Co-operation Council Summit, and paying a state visit to the Saudi capital Riyadh.
The article is themed “Carrying Forward Our Millennia-old Friendship and Jointly Creating a Better Future.
Chinese leader Xi Jinping met on Thursday with Saudi Arabia’s king and the crown prince while on a visit to the kingdom, solidifying ties with a region crucial to his country’s energy supplies as sanctions intensify on Russia over its war on Ukraine.
Xi arrived at Al Yamama Palace in Riyadh and was greeted by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the king’s assertive son who stands ready to rule the oil-rich kingdom in the decades to come. Xi shook hands with the prince as an honor guard on horseback carried Saudi and Chinese flags.
