Kingdom to include Chinese in curriculum at all stages
Crown prince seals $10bn China refinery deal 35 joint agreements worth $28bn signed
Saudi Arabia and China on Friday agreed to include the Chinese language in the curriculum at all stages of education in Saudi schools and universities.
The agreement came during a meeting between Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and a high-level Chinese delegation in Beijing.
“The introduction of Chinese to the curriculum is an important step toward the opening of new horizons for students,” the royal court said in a statement.
The move aims to enable a comprehensive strategic partnership to achieve the aspirations of the Saudi and Chinese leaderships and seize the promising opportunities between their two peoples, a relationship that has extended for many years.
The crown prince cemented a $10 billion deal for a refining and petrochemical complex in China on Friday, meeting Chinese President Xi Jinping.
The Saudi delegation, including top executives from Saudi Aramco, arrived here on Thursday.
Saudi Arabia signed 35 economic cooperation agreements with China worth a total of $28 billion at a joint investment forum during the visit, Saudi state news agency SPA said.
The crown prince said Saudi Arabia’s relations with China dated back “a very long time.”
“In the hundreds, even thousands, of years, the interactions between the sides have been friendly. Over such a long period of exchanges with China, we have never experienced any problems with China,” he said.
The crown prince conveyed King Salman’s greetings to President Xi and the Chinese leader conveyed his appreciation to King Salman. The crown prince affirmed the effectiveness of Saudi-Chinese coordination on the economic level, stressing that trade between the two countries increased by 32 percent last year and pointing out that council is able to create more opportunities for the two countries.
Xi hosted a banquet dinner in honor of the crown prince.
“The Silk Road initiative and China’s strategic orientation are very much in line with the Kingdom’s Vision 2030,” said the crown prince.
Xi told the crown prince the two countries must strengthen international cooperation on de-radicalization to “prevent the infiltration and spread of extremist thinking,” Chinese state television said. Saudi Arabia respected and supported China’s right to protect its own security and take steps in counterterrorism and de-radicalization, the crown prince told Xi, according to the same report, and was willing to increase cooperation.
Meeting the crown prince earlier on Friday, Chinese Vice Premier Han Zheng said the two countries should enhance exchanges on their experiences in de-radicalization, Xinhua said.
Aramco agreed to form a joint venture with Chinese defense conglomerate Norinco to develop a refining and petrochemical complex in the northeastern Chinese city of Panjin, saying the project was worth more than $10 billion.
The partners would form a company called Huajin Aramco Petrochemical Co. as part of a project that would include a refinery with a capacity for 300,000-barrels per day and a 1.5-million-metric tons per year ethylene cracker, Aramco said.