On April 25, 2016, China and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) held in Beijing the senior official's meeting of the political working group of China-GCC Strategic Dialogue. Director-General of the Department of West Asian and North African Affairs of the Foreign Ministry Deng Li, Director of GCC Department at Ministry of Foreign Affairs Abdullah Al-Shamrani of Saudi Arabia, the rotating presidency of the GCC, and GCC Assistant Secretary General Abdel Aziz Abu Hamad Aluwaisheg co-chaired the meeting. Both sides exchanged in-depth views on promoting China-GCC collective cooperation under the new situation, China-GCC Free Trade Area (FTA) negotiations and topics of common interest including the Middle East peace process, the Syrian issue, the Yemeni issue as well as anti-terrorism, reaching broad consensus.