On May 12, 2016 local time, Foreign Minister Wang Yi, Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani of Qatar as well as Secretary-General Nabil El Araby of the League of Arab States (LAS) together attended the closing ceremony of the 7th ministerial meeting of the China-Arab States Cooperation Forum (CASCF).

Wang Yi expressed that with joint efforts of the two sides, the 7th CASCF ministerial meeting has successfully completed all agendas and achieved a full success. The ministerial meeting, taking place on the year marking the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Arab states, is an important meeting that inherits the past and ushers in the future, and will certainly exert positive and far-reaching influence on promoting China-Arab relations for improvement, upgrade and leapfrog development.

Wang Yi expressed that we have strengthened the common sense of cooperation. President Xi Jinping paid historic visits to Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the LAS headquarters this January, and announced a series of major cooperation initiatives, charting the course for opening up another more glorious 60 years for China-Arab relations. We should take this meeting as a new start to inherit and develop good experience and methods from China-Arab relations, become good assistants and partners that work together, further strengthen the political tradition of China-Arab friendship, tighten the interest bond of practical cooperation, and deeply plough the soil of people-to-people and cultural exchanges, so as to make China-Arab relations walk in the forefront of the collective cooperation among developing countries.

We focused on the joint action to advance development. At present, China-Arab economic development is faced with new challenges and opportunities. We endeavor to focus on development tasks, expand development ideas, improve development quality and strengthen the stamina of development. We should take the convocation of this meeting as an opportunity to advance the joint construction of the Belt and Road between China and Arab states, improve the "1+2+3" cooperation pattern and give play to the "1+1>2" scale effect, so as to promote China-Arab collective cooperation to a new level.

We have defined the common goal for the next two years. The meeting has passed and signed two outcome documents, namely the Doha Declaration and the 2016-2018 Action Plan, making top-level design for the collective cooperation between China and Arab states for the next two years and establishing an action guideline. We should keep promises, focus on actions, further strengthen communication and coordination in major international and regional affairs between both sides, strengthen practical cooperation within the framework of the joint construction of the Belt and Road between China and Arab states, expand people-to-people and cultural exchanges, and complete the forum mechanism construction, so as to effectively implement the outcomes of the meeting together.

Satisfied with the positive achievements of the meeting, both Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani and Nabil El Araby believe that the outcome documents passed in the meeting show the consensus on a series of important issues between the two sides and plan the priorities and direction for the future cooperation, which will certainly inject new impetus into Arab-China relations in the future.