On April 14, 2014, Vice Foreign Minister Zhang Ming and Secretary General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Oman Sayyid Badr bin Hamad bin Hamoud al-Busaidi held the eighth round of strategic consultation between the Foreign Ministries of both countries in Beijing.

Zhang Ming said that Oman is China's reliable and important partner in the Middle East and the Gulf region. China attaches great importance to developing relations with Oman and stands ready to further deepen the bilateral friendly and cooperative relations in political, energy, economic, trade, investment, people-to-people, cultural and other fields. Badr spoke highly of the Oman-China relations, and stressed that the Omani side is willing to join hands with China to further promote the bilateral relations.

Zhang Ming expressed that China appreciates the positive role Oman has played in pushing forward the resumption of the negotiations on China-Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) free trade area. He hoped that the Omani side could continuously exert its influence in promoting the GCC to restart the negotiations and to sign the agreement as early as possible. Badr emphasized that Oman supports the early resumption of the negotiations on GCC-China free trade area and of the early agreement, and stands ready to continuously make positive contributions in this regard.

In addition, both sides also made an in-depth exchange of views on West Asian and North African regional topics of common interest.