Iran Press/ Asia: The first China-Arab meeting is scheduled to be held in early December this year in Saudi Arabia.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said on Saturday: "In the shadow of unprecedented changes in the new century, China and the Arabs are facing similar challenges and opportunities."
China has all along viewed Arab states as strategic partners in our pursuit of peaceful development, further cooperation with developing countries and building a community with a shared future for mankind, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said.
Both China and Arab countries advocate respect for sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity, mutual non-aggression, non-interference in each other's internal affairs, equality and mutual benefit, and peaceful coexistence. They both oppose external interference and all forms of hegemonism and power politics, according to the report.
Compared with relations between the US and Arab countries, China's relations with them are based on equality and mutual respect with honesty, unlike the US which brings ideological bias in its interactions with the countries, Zhu Yongbiao, executive director of the Research Center for the Belt and Road in Lanzhou University said.
Saudi Arabia plans to host the Chinese-Arab summit on December 9, Reuters reported, which also comes at a "sensitive time for Saudi-US relations" that have been strained by a dispute over energy supplies. 219
