China-Arab people-to-people friendship crucial

The lasting people-to-people friendly relations between China and the Arabic countries are the source for developing relations in other aspects, said Secretary General of Arab-China Friendship Association Ahmed Abdul-Rahman Mohamed in Yinchuan on Thursday.

Abdul-Rahman said this in a keynote speech at the fourth China-Arab Friendship conference from Sept. 13 - 14 in the capital of China's only provincial-level autonomous region for the Hui ethnic group.

"Nearly half a century ago, China established the People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries, " Abdul-Rahman noted, "It proved that China attaches importance to developing friendly relations with other countries around the world. "

He thought that is a good strategy and called on all the Arabic countries to follow.

This will bring huge benefits, not only to China, but also to the whole Arabic world, he stressed.

Earlier, Abdul-Rahman talked about the recent fruits attained by Arab-China Friendship Association in an interview with Xinhuanet reporters.

"The association was founded to support the relations and cooperation with China in all fields, such as economy, agriculture and especially education."

"China has already set up several Confucius Institutes in Arabic and African countries. For Arabians and Chinese, these institutes would boost them to know each other better."

He thought language is a vital means to promote the people-to-people interaction between China and the Arabic World.

Accordingly, he said, "Sudan's Ministry of Culture now is planning to establish a Confucius Institute in Khartoum." And his association has donated a piece of land for the construction.

Abdul-Rahman illustrated, "The development of mutual cultural ties is very important, because it will promote all other relations of two countries. "

"The globe is undergoing complicated changes and the situation in Arabic region is quite complicated. Therefore, the Arabians regarded maintaining relationship with friendly, brotherly China as a vital task. "

"We hope that China can offer support to Arabic countries, particularly to the Palestine area."

"The Arab world is moving towards democracy and prosperity. Thus we need to strengthen the cooperation with China in the future," he suggested.

The Arab-China Friendship Association was founded in 2008, a permanent organization based in Sudan.

The China-Arab Friendship conference has been held for three times since 2006. And the third China-Arab Friendship conference was held in Libya in 2010.