Giant strides

YAO ER/FOR CHINA DAILY

China and the UAE are strengthening partnership to usher in a more brilliant future

A good start in the spring will ensure year-round success. During the Spring Festival holiday, President Xi Jinping met Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan of Abu Dhabi of the United Arab Emirates, who was in China for the opening ceremony of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games.

This was the first face-to-face meeting between the two leaders in nearly three years. The two sides held in-depth exchanges on bilateral relations, pragmatic cooperation, and regional and international issues of common interest, and jointly laid out a blueprint for the China-UAE comprehensive strategic partnership for a new era.

In the face of major global changes and the COVID-19 pandemic, China and the UAE have jointly contributed wisdom for win-win outcomes, promoting regional peace and stability and the building of a community with a shared future for mankind.

Last year, on the 100th founding anniversary of the Communist Party of China and the 50th anniversary of the founding of the UAE, President Xi and Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed exchanged congratulatory messages. The two countries have supported each other with pragmatic actions, maintained high-level diplomatic, economic and trade ties, and supported each other on issues concerning their respective core interests and major concerns.

The development strategies of the two sides are well aligned. China's Belt and Road Initiative is highly compatible with the UAE's vision to revitalize the Silk Road. In 2021, trade volume between China and the UAE registered a historic 46.6 percent year-on-year rise to surpass the $70 billion mark. The UAE continues to maintain its position as China's second largest trading partner and its largest export market in the region. Khalifa Port, the second phase of the federal railway project, and the onshore and offshore projects of China National Petroleum Corp in Abu Dhabi are progressing smoothly. Other projects, such as the UAE wholesale market for agricultural, livestock and fishery products and the China-UAE demonstration project for forage grass and livestock development, are moving forward steadily. The successful planting of date palms, the national treasure of the UAE, in Wenchang, Hainan province, is symbolic of the vibrant bilateral friendship and high-quality agricultural cooperation between the two countries.

China and the UAE are also working together to conduct the world's first international Phase III clinical trial of inactivated vaccines against COVID-19. They have launched a vaccine-filling production line and made steady progress in building the Hayat-Vax vaccine production plant, which has an annual output of 200 million doses. The UAE has also approved the emergency use of Chinese company Sinopharm's recombinant protein vaccine, the world's first second-generation COVID-19 vaccine. China fully supports the UAE's national vaccination plan, helping it become one of the countries with the highest vaccination rates. The UAE has actively cooperated with China to set up vaccination points for Chinese citizens in Dubai as part of the "Spring Sprout" program, benefiting over 100,000 overseas Chinese citizens so far.

Bilateral people-to-people exchanges are also flourishing. The number of schools under the Hundreds-School Program, which is devoted to teaching Mandarin in the UAE, has increased to 143. These cater to more than 45,000 students, or 15 percent of all students in UAE public schools. China's National Pavilion Day was successfully held at the Expo 2020 Dubai on Jan 10. The China Pavilion, known as the Light of China, attracted millions of visitors through four themed exhibition areas and nearly 100 cultural activities, showcasing the achievements of China's development and the richness of Chinese culture.

The ties also extend to cutting-edge technology. China's Mars probe Tianwen 1 and the UAE's Hope probe have both traveled to Mars. The UAE is the first Arab country to attend the China Pujiang Innovation Forum as the guest of honor. Special climate envoys from China and the UAE have held in-depth dialogue and exchanges on climate change and sustainable development.

China has embarked on a new journey to build a modern socialist country in all respects and work toward its second centenary goal after ending abject poverty in 2020.The UAE is also sounding the clarion call for the next 50 years. The two sides should work together to forge a bilateral comprehensive strategic partnership for the new era.

China supports the UAE in implementing its initiatives for the next 50 years, with efforts to actively participate in its major development projects, promote the high-quality building of the Belt and Road Initiative and enable the implementation of the Global Development Initiative in the Middle East.

The two sides should strengthen coordination and cooperation eyeing the international landscape. China will work hard to deepen anti-pandemic cooperation and promote the forging of a global community of health for all. The two sides should continue to support each other's positions concerning their respective core interests, strengthen cooperation in areas such as counter-terrorism and de-radicalization, and jointly maintain regional and international peace and stability.

They should further enrich the content of their cooperation. It is important for the two nations to cement the foundation of cooperation in traditional energy, vigorously expand high-tech cooperation in areas including new energy, renewable energy, aerospace, artificial intelligence, biopharmaceuticals, genetic technology and modern agriculture, to achieve common, transformational and green development.

I believe that under the strategic guidance of the leaders of both countries, the China-UAE comprehensive strategic partnership for the new era will surely flourish and usher in a more brilliant future.

The author is the Chinese ambassador to the UAE. The author contributed this article to China Watch, a think tank powered by China Daily.

The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.

Contact the editor at editor@chinawatch.cn