April 24-25, 2018, after attending the China-Arab Reform and Development Forum held in Beijing on April 23, Sharif, former Egyptian Prime Minister; Fatah, former Sudanese Speaker; Jia Qi, former Egyptian Foreign Minister Assistant; Gainard, Director-General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Algeria; Budane, Director of the Arab League of the Arab Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Algeria; Daoud, President of the Iraqi Think Tank Wisdom Palace; Hassan, Director of Port of Mauritania Friendship Port, accompanied by Li Chengwen, Ambassador of the China-Arab States Cooperation Forum of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, President of council of CARC, made a special trip to SISU and CARC and the third Arab officials seminar.
Zong Ming, Deputy Secretary-General of the Shanghai Municipal Government, met with Sharif and Fatah in the VIP room of the city government. On behalf of the Municipal Party Committee and the Municipal Government, Zong Ming warmly welcomed the Arab VIPs to visit Shanghai and CARC, introduced the construction status and development trend of Shanghai over the past few years. She highly affirmed the success of the China-Arab Reform and Development Research Forum and hoped that CARC will play a greater role in promoting China-Arab people-to-people exchanges and promised that the Shanghai Municipal Government will fully support the substantive construction of the Center. Li Yansong, President of SISU, attended the meeting.
Jiang Feng, Party Secretary of SISU, and President Li Yansong, warmly welcomed the Arab guests to SISU and CARC. They introduced to guests the situation of SISU in talent cultivation, which attaches great importance to the development of outstanding international talents with profound Chinese and foreign cultural backgrounds and outstanding cross-cultural competence. They said that SISU would expand cooperation with the Arab side in the fields of education and and take the responsibility to undertake the exchanges between China and Arab countries. Jiang Feng and Li Yansong pointed out that SISU, as the practioner of CARC, relying on high-level disciplines, think tank resources and international communication capabilities to provide a good development environment for the center. They hoped that the Arab guests and foreign scholars will strengthen the exchanges of experience in development and governance of the country through seminars organized by CARC, and deepen their understanding of the “Belt and Road” initiative.
On the morning of the 25th, the Arab guests met with the participants of the third Arab officials seminar. Former Egyptian Prime Minister Sharif and former Sudanese Speaker Fatah delivered a speech to the participants. Former Prime Minister Sharif said that the “Belt and Road” initiative is not only an engineering project, a policy outcome, but also a human achievement in the world. The idea of China is that human beings are a community of destiny with different cultures. Different ethnic groups respect each other and develop in accordance with an international trend, which is more fair and reasonable. Dialogue among civilizations is an essential way to solve the problems. The former Speaker Fatah said that there are many historical and common links between China and Arab countries. The Silk Road is not just a road of mutual benefit in trade and investment, it is also a cross-cultural exchange. Chinese President Xi Jinping said that the world is a family, so members of this big family must interact with each other, be connected with each other, and be companionship, they must not be divided. Human beings can only show the highest value if they are in a harmonious state.
After meeting with the participants, Sharif and Fatah and his team had a fruitful academic discussion with our China-Arab research experts including Zhu Weilie, Wang Youyong, Sun Degang, Ding Jun, etc.