On September 13, 2004, Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing, who was on a visit to Egypt, met with Secretary-General of the League of Arab States (LAS) Amr Mahmoud Moussa.

Li Zhaoxing indicated that the Chinese government attaches great importance to the launch of the China-Arab Cooperation Forum, which is an effort to implement the consensus reached between President Hu Jintao and leaders of Arab states early this year and also a great event in the history of China-Arab friendly relations. China would like to continue cooperation with the LAS to build the Forum into a platform for strengthening group dialogue between China and Arab states and take it as an opportunity to deepen China-Arab cooperation in various fields and upgrade the level of cooperation, so as to bring benefits to people of both sides and contribute to regional and world peace and development.

Moussa noted that the launch of the Arab-China Cooperation Forum has opened a new chapter for development of the traditional friendship and cooperation between Arab states and China, and Arab states are fully confident of the prospects of Arab-China relations.

The two sides also exchanged views on international and regional issues of common interest.