FMs Of Four Gulf States, SG, GCC Arrives In Beijing On Five-day Visit

Foreign ministers from four Gulf States of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman and Bahrain and the secretary-general of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) arrived on Monday in Beijing for a five-day visit

BEIJING, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 10th Jan, 2022 ) :Foreign ministers from four Gulf States of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman and Bahrain and the secretary-general of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) arrived on Monday in Beijing for a five-day visit.

The four foreign ministers, Prince Faisal bin Farhan al-Saud of Saudi Arabia, Sheikh Ahmad Nasser al Mohammad al Sabah of Kuwait, Sayyid Badr al Busaidi of Oman and Abdullatif bin Rashid al Zayani of Bahrain, and GCC Secretary-General Nayef bin Falah al Hajraf are visiting China from January 10 to 14 at the invitation of Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi.

The relations between China and GCC countries have emerged more mature and steady after 40 years of development, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson, Wang Wenbin said during his regular briefing.

He said that China and GCC countries have firmly supported each other on issues concerning respective core interests, advanced practical cooperation in various fields and achieved fruitful outcomes.

The two sides also stay in close contact on regional hotspot issues, and make positive contribution to regional peace and stability.

Wang Wenbin said that under the new historical circumstances, China is ready to work together with the GCC for common development and elevate the bilateral relations to a new stage.

The first-ever coordinated visit by the Gulf delegation is being seen by experts as historically unprecedented and a positive step toward achieving a China-GCC FTA.

The visit is vitally important, and it may lead to positive results for a China-GCC FTA, after negotiations started in 2004, Li Shaoxian, director of the China Institute for Arab Studies at Ningxia University, told the Global Times.

Yin Gang, a researcher at the Institute of West-Asian and African Studies at the Chinese academy of Social Sciences, concurred.

"Far from the normal talks in a regular visit, this unprecedented and rare collective visit by GCC countries will likely bring a practical bilateral cooperation statement or major progress in the negotiation of the FTA, he told the Global Times.

It is important to note that China and the GCC first initiated the FTA talks in 2004 and then asserted the importance of resuming the negotiations at the earliest during the Chinese foreign minister's meeting with the GCC chief in the Saudi capital Riyadh in March last year.

Founded in 1971, the GCC commemorated its 40th anniversary last year, which also marked the 40th anniversary of the establishment of China-GCC ties. On that occasion, both Wang and al Hajraf expressed their desire to elevate the level of China-GCC relations with the FTA being a stepping stone in that direction.

"We hope the two sides will complete the negotiations on the China-GCC FTA at an early date to help the GCC member states overcome the downward pressure of the global economy and achieve economic recovery as soon as possible," Wang said.

Acknowledging that China tops the GCC's list of resuming free trade negotiations, the GCC chief had expressed hopes that the China-GCC FTA talks will end with an agreement as soon as possible, so to enhance the mutually beneficial and win-win cooperation in the digital economy and high-tech areas. The current visit is being seen as an extension of the conversation that took place between both the sides last year.

The GCC was founded as a regional political and economic bloc of six oil-rich Gulf states comprising Saudi Arabia, Oman, Kuwait, the UAE, Qatar, and Bahrain.

Over the decades, China has emerged as the bloc's largest trading partner as well as the top oil importer from GCC countries.