Senior Chinese official calls for enhancing cooperation between Tianjin, Dubai during UAE visit

Chen Min'er (L), member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and secretary of the CPC Tianjin Municipal Committee, meets with Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum (R), vice president and prime minister of the United Arab Emirates at Zabeel Palace in Dubai on Sept. 2, 2024. [Photo by Sui Xiankai/Xinhua]

ABU DHABI, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- Under the strategic leadership of Chinese President Xi Jinping and the President of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, bilateral relations have developed rapidly in recent years, setting a model for relations between China and Arab countries in the new era, a visiting senior Chinese official has said here.

Chen Min'er, a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, made the remarks on Monday during a meeting with Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, vice president and prime minister of the UAE at Zabeel Palace in Dubai.

Chen noted that China is willing to work with the UAE to take the 40th anniversary of diplomatic relations as an opportunity to actively implement the important consensus reached by the two heads of state, strengthen exchanges and mutual learning of experience in governance and modernization, and advance the high-quality Belt and Road cooperation.

Chen, who is also the secretary of the CPC Tianjin Municipal Committee, said that Tianjin is ready to give full play to its advantages to strengthen cooperation with the UAE, especially Dubai, in fields such as economy, trade, investment, free trade zone and port construction, thereby contributing to the development of bilateral relations.

For his part, the UAE vice president and prime minister said that his country attaches great importance to developing relations with China and is satisfied with the sound development momentum of bilateral exchanges and cooperation in fields such as politics, economy, trade, investment, and people-to-people exchanges.

The UAE, especially Dubai, is willing to further deepen the docking of development strategies and mutually beneficial cooperation in various fields with China, so as to promote greater development of bilateral relations, added Mohammed bin Rashid, who is also ruler of Dubai.

At the invitation of the UAE government, a CPC delegation led by Chen visited the Gulf state from Sunday to Wednesday, during which they also met with UAE Vice President and Deputy Prime Minister Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, UAE Minister of Economy Abdulla Bin Touq Al Marri, and Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, chairman and chief executive officer of DP World.

During the visit, Chen also attended the 2024 "Invest China" Tianjin Session and facilitated the signing of several cooperation agreements, including a memorandum between the Tianjin Free Trade Zone and the UAE's Jebel Ali Free Zone, and a cooperation agreement between Tianjin Port Group and DP World.