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China-Saudi strategic friendship deepens

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-02-10 09:38

RIYADH - Chinese President Hu Jintao will set foot on Saudi Arabia Tuesday, highlighting the importance China attaches to the strategic friendly relations between the two nations.

Hu's three-day state visit, at the invitation of King of Saudi Arabia Abdullah bin Abdul-Aziz, is his second one to the Arab state since April 2006.

The visit is aimed at furthering China's friendship and cooperation with the country and strengthening its cooperation with the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf (GCC), Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said.

Since 1990, the two countries have witnessed rapid development in exchanges and cooperation in political, economic, cultural, educational, religious and other aspects.

In recent years, their political mutual trust and exchanges of high-level visits have also been on a rise.                      

King Abdullah paid a state visit to China in January 2006, the first official overseas visit after his succession as king, and also the first visit to China by Saudi king since the two countries established diplomatic relations in 1990.

In the same year, Hu paid a return visit to Saudi Arabia in April. The successful exchange of visits by the two heads of state has promoted bilateral pragmatic cooperation and boosted the strategic friendly cooperative relations between the two countries.

Hu's upcoming visit provides an opportunity for the two countries to further consolidate and strengthen bilateral strategic cooperation, Chinese Ambassador to Saudi Arabia Yang Honglin told Xinhua.

It shows Chinese leaders attach great importance to the Sino-Saudi relations and China hopes the visit can push bilateral relations to a higher level, Yang said.

After the devastating earthquake in Wenchuan, China's southwest Sichuan Province last May, Saudi Arabia immediately provided China with US$50 million in cash and US$10 million in goods, which the Chinese government and the people will remember forever, he said.

Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping visited the country last June, when he also attended the Jeddah International Energy Conference, at which he elaborated China's policy stance on cooperation with Saudi Arabia and the GCC, which groups Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

The two countries hold similar views on major international and regional issues and have maintained coordination and cooperation in these aspects, Yang said.

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