Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin Photo: mfa.gov.cn

All Arab countries have signed Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) cooperation documents with China, and China is looking forward to working with Arab countries to jointly promote high-quality construction of BRI to better benefit the people on both sides, Chinese Foreign Ministry (FM) said on Wednesday.

The comment came after China and Jordan on November 29 signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) recently on jointly promoting the construction of the BRI projects in Jordan.

The two sides will actively promote policy coordination, infrastructure connectivity, unimpeded trade, financial integration, and people-to-people ties, and further deepen cooperation in various fields to better benefit the two peoples, the National Development and Reform Commission said on Friday.

So far, China has signed cooperation documents on jointly building the Belt and Road with all 22 Arab countries and the Arab League, said Wang Wenbin, a spokesperson from the Foreign Ministry.

The value of overall trade between China and Arab countries has reached $431.4 billion.

This year marks the 10th anniversary of the BRI. During the past 10 years, China and Arab countries, as natural partners in building the BRI, have delivered outstanding results, Wang said.

In 2022, the trade volume between China and Arab countries exceeded $430 billion, double that of 10 years ago. China imported 270 million tons of crude oil from Arab countries, accounting for half of China's total crude imports.

The two-way investment has grown exponentially over the past 10 years, and the two sides have implemented more than 200 large-scale cooperation projects under the framework of BRI, and the results of cooperation have benefited up to 2 billion people on both sides, Wang said. 

Wang said that the BRI has become an important international public good and an international cooperation platform, providing strong support for building the human community with a shared future, and he hopes the platform will better benefit the people on both sides of China and Arab countries. 

Global Times