President Xi Jinping delievered a speech to the GCC Summit in Saudi Arabia./CCTV
China and all six Gulf nations will continue to strengthen their strategic partnership and give each other enough support to achieve common interests following a summit of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) with China, held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
On his last day of a three-day visit to Saudi Arabia, China's President Xi Jinping attended the China-GCC summit, where he called on delegates to build relations on past achievements and jointly create a brighter future. Also attending the meeting were leaders from the six-member GCC nations, namely Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain, Oman, Qatar, and Kuwait.
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A 'Strategic Dialogue Five-year Action Plan' was issued at the end of the summit, with the aim to push China-GCC relations into a new era. Both sides also spoke of close security and energy ties.
Xi proposed five major areas for cooperation in the next three to five years, including energy, finance, investment, innovation and new technologies, as well as aerospace, language and culture.
All leaders appreciated that the Qatar World Cup had accelerated the exchange of different cultures, civilizations, and thoughts whilst condemning attacks towards the tournament hosts. Qatar and the global governing body of football, FIFA, have been criticized for the gulf nation's legislation on homosexuality and accusations of exploiting workers.
Other areas of consensus between the two sides include condemning terrorism, sustaining support to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, promoting safety and stability in Afghanistan, supporting all international efforts to help ease the situation and solve the crisis in Ukraine via political methods.