On March 24, 2021 local time, State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi received an exclusive interview with Al Arabiya in Riyadh.

In response to the reporter's question on his assessment of China-Arab relations at present, Wang Yi said that China-Arab relations have forged ahead and demonstrated strong vitality despite many once-in-a-century changes in the international landscape and a pandemic unseen in a hundred years. It has become a fine example of state-to-state relations and South-South cooperation.

Wang Yi said that in 2020, there were three impressive markers, or three "number ones", in China-Arab relations. With two-way trade approaching 240 billion U.S. dollars last year, China stayed comfortably as the largest trading partner of Arab states. Half of China's crude oil import came from Arab states, who contributed the biggest source of China's oil import. At the ninth Ministerial Conference of the China-Arab States Cooperation Forum, the two sides agreed to hold the first ever China-Arab states summit. Saudi Arabia has kindly offered to be the host. We are having close consultations with Saudi Arabia to make this summit a memorable event in the history of China-Arab relations.