The opening ceremony

On June 10, 2015, the 12th Senior Officials' Meeting of the China-Arab States Cooperation Forum (CASCF) was held in the headquarters of League of Arab States in Cairo of Egypt. The meeting was co-chaired by Deng Li, Secretary General of the Chinese Secretariat of the CASCF and Director-General of the Department of West Asian and North African Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Yasser Murad, Assistant Foreign Minister for Asian Countries and Pacific Ocean Islands Affairs of Egypt. Secretary-General Nabil el-Araby of the League of Arab States attended and addressed the opening ceremony. Chinese Ambassador to Egypt and Representative to the League of Arab States Song Aiguo, Assistant Secretary General Fadhel Jawad of the League of Arab States, Head of the Diplomatic Mission of Arab countries in China and Omani Ambassador to China Abdullah Saleh Al Saadi, as well as others attended the meeting. Representatives from Foreign Ministry, Ministry of Commerce, Ministry of Culture, China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT) and other departments, as well as over 80 officials, including those from the Foreign Ministries of 21 Arab states and those in charge of China-Arab relations and CASCF affairs from the General Secretariat of the League of Arab States, were present.

The meeting hall

The meeting summarized the outcome achieved during the 1st Strategic and Political Dialogue at the Senior Officials' Level, evaluated the implementation of the "2014-2016 Action Plan" for CASCF and clarified the work plan in the next stage. The meeting mainly discussed on such topics as the joint construction of the "Belt and Road" by China and Arab states and promotion of cooperation in production capacity, and exchanged views on the preparatory work for the seventh ministerial meeting of CASCF to be held in Qatar in 2016. An outcome document was also adopted at the meeting.

Director-General Deng Li delivers a speech

The participants of the meeting spoke positively of the achievements scored in China-Arab relations and the construction of CASCF since the sixth ministerial meeting, made suggestions mainly on enhancing bilateral practical cooperation in economy, trade, energy, infrastructure, aviation, satellite, new energy and other sectors, and reached a series of important consensus. The Arab states expressed that faced with the continued turmoil in the region, they attach great importance to participating in the construction of the "Belt and Road" and are willing to take it as opportunity to constantly improve the mechanism of CASCF and enrich the connotation of China-Arab strategic cooperative relations.

Strategic and Political Dialogue at the Senior Officials' Level

On June 9, China and the Arab states also held the 1st Strategic and Political Dialogue at the Senior Officials' Level, exchanging in-depth views on major international and regional issues of common interest.