YINCHUAN, Dec. 7 (Xinhua) -- Five years after Mahmoud Fattouh came to China for a doctorate in ethnology at Ningxia University, the young Egyptian now speaks fluent Mandarin.
The first summit between China and Arab countries will be held in Saudi Arabia on Friday. This is a milestone in the history of China-Arab countries relations and will take the cooperation between the two sides to a whole new level.
The first China-Arab summit, to be held in Saudi Arabia on Friday, is a strategic choice made by both sides. The summit conforms to the trend of the development of the times and will become an epoch-making milestone in the history of China-Arab relations.
With the United States' strategic presence shrinking in the Middle East and Russia occupied with the Ukraine conflict, China has played an increasingly prominent role in the region. And since Arab countries now attach greater value to relations with China, the region is bound to become an increasingly important platform for China's diplomacy.
