What they say

Editor’s note: Six foreign ministers shared their views on President Xi Jinping’s keynote speech at the eighth ministerial meeting of the China-Arab States Cooperation Forum in Beijing on Tuesday.

I thought it was a profound and forward-looking speech. It was a speech in which President Xi outlined a vision for the future of Sino-Arab cooperation in various areas. And these initiatives that were contained in the speech will elevate the relationship between China and the Arab world to a truly strategic level. And we are very supportive of it. Adel bin Ahmed Al-Jubeir, Saudi foreign minister

We appreciate the vision of Chinese President Xi Jinping with regard to the world, how things are moving and how we should work together and how we should build one world as a global world in a peaceful manner. We trust that we can build a very strong partnership between China and the Arab world.

Souef Mohamed El Amine, Comoros foreign minister

President Xi put forward a full program toward painting a future of more cooperation between China and the Arab world on economic, trade, cultural and political levels. It was an extremely powerful speech. We look forward to being able to see it implemented positively.

Ayman Safadi, Jordanian foreign minister

President Xi in his speech has charted a very strong way toward how China sees the relationship for the coming 20, 30 and 40 years. The implementation of the long-term vision starts from the implementation

of the Belt and Road Initiative. All the Arab countries are interested in being part of this historic initiative. The second issue that is important is that China has always stood by the Arab countries, not only in political affairs, but also in the development process.

Mahmoud Ali Youssouf, Djibouti’s foreign minister

Even before I came to this conference, I’d already been impressed by President Xi Jinping for the progress China is making and the positive role China is playing in the world. I was quite impressed by Xi’s call and vision of the strategy of future cooperation between China and the Arab world and his promise and pledge to contribute to the development of economic cooperation between China and the Arab world.

Ahmed Isse Awad, Somali foreign minister

The meeting is becoming one of the most important platforms for cooperation and partnership between the Arab countries and China. I think in order to really strengthen the economy, you need also to think about exchanges between people. In the aspect of culture and education, we have a lot to share between the two, and the Arab and Chinese cultures are both very rich. We need to develop this further.

Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, Mauritanian foreign minister