From November 18th to 25th, the 10th Arab Officials Seminar of CARC was held at Songjiang Campus of SISU. This seminar consists of 31 government officials from 16 Arab countries.
On the morning of the 19th, the opening ceremony was held at International Education Center of Songjiang Campus. Zha Mingjian, Vice President of SISU; Mansour Nurdin, Director and Spokesperson of the Information Department of the Sudanese Foreign Ministry, and all the participants attended the opening ceremony. Wang Guangda, Secretary-General and Executive Director of CARC, presided over the opening ceremony.
Zhang Mingjian, Vice President, gave a welcome speech. He first recalled that since the establishment of CARC in April 2017, it has successfully held nine seminars for Arab Officials and one seminar for Sino-Arab political parties. The Center is committed to building a high-level exchange platform for ideas that not only has the characteristics of reform and development, but also has the research capabilities of think tanks. President Zha pointed out that security governance in the Middle East has become a common concern of all countries and an issue that China is concerned about and willing to actively participate in. The multiple choice questions imposed by some countries on Arab countries have led to regional turmoil. The idea of fighting security did not solve the problem, but brought the ravages of war and development. China advocates a common, comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable security concept, and through our own wisdom, we have established a new and effective security structure with regional characteristics. President Zha also introduced the international perspectives and school running characteristics to the participants, hoping to conduct more exchanges and cooperation with universities and research institutions in Arab countries.
Director Mansour Nurdin thanked the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Education, the Shanghai Municipal Government and SISU. He pointed out that the establishment of the Center and a series of activities are a strong proof of China's active development of relations with Arab countries, and the Center is an effective platform to promote the development of Sino-Arab ideological relations. Director Mansour said that the Arab people have paid close attention to China's great development achievements, and sincerely hope to promote mutual understanding, eliminate problems caused by mutual incomprehension, get a closer understanding of China’s reform and development experience, and jointly explore the path of China-Arab cooperation and development.
During the seminar, the Center organized a series of rich and detailed courses and exchanges that closely related to the theme of reform and development. Liu Genfa, deputy director of the Foreign Exchange and Training and Development Department of China Pudong Cadre Institute; Zhao Qizheng, former member of the Party Central Committee, former deputy mayor of Shanghai, former director of the State Council Information Office; Pan Shiwei, former deputy director of the Propaganda Department of the Shanghai Municipal Committee of CPC, and former Party Secretary of the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences; Yang Jiemian, director of the Academic Council of the Institute of International Studies and counselor of the Shanghai Municipal Government, gave lectures respectively on China's National Conditions and Official Leadership Training; Pudong's Rapid Economic Development; China's 40 Years of Reform and Opening up and Experience, and China's Foreign Policy and Multilateralism. The participants responded enthusiastically and actively discussed their concerns with the experts. During the listening and dialogue session of “Arab States' Thoughts on Reform and Development”, Professor Zhu Weilie, Director of the Center's Experts Committee; Professor Ding Jun, member of the Shanghai CPPCC, Vice Chairman of the Islamic Association, Shanghai International Middle East Research Institute; Professor Wang Guangda, Executive Director of the Center and Associate Professor Chen Yueyang had in-depth discussions with the participants on the issues of China-Arab relations and China-Arab joint construction of the Belt and Road, reform and development and governance of the country, exchange of governance experience, and China-Arab cultures and civilizations dialogue.
In addition, the participants also visited Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition Hall, COMAC, Huitian New Materials Group, Kudosbay International Trade and Industry Zone, Songjiang Administrative Service Center, and University Entrepreneurship Center, which made them have practical feelings about the results of China's reform and development, had direct exchanges with relevant persons in charge of enterprises and strengthened the determination and confidence of cooperation with China.
From November 27th to 28th, all participants went to Beijing to participate in the first Middle East Security Forum. The theme of this forum is Security in the Middle East under the New Situation: Challenges and Prospects, focusing on issues such as fairness and justice, multilateralism, development for security, and civilizations dialogue. During the forum, the participants actively participated in the discussions and were interviewed by the media to express their views on security-related matters in the Middle East.
On the 26th, Li Chengwen, Ambassador of the China-Arab States Cooperation Forum of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Board Chairman of CARC, met with all the participants in Beijing. Ambassador Li pointed out that the world today is facing unprecedented changes, China and Arab countries shoulder common mission of reform and development, the China-Arab States Cooperation Forum is an effective mechanism to promote China-Arab cooperation and common prosperity, the development of China-Arab friendly relations requires the joint efforts of the government and non-governmental channels, the participants who came to China today are the Ambassadors of the People of China-Arab friendship. Ambassador Li also explained in detail to the participants China's policies towards the Arab countries and China's position on the Hong Kong and Taiwan issues.
In this seminar, the Director of the Asian Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Jordan, the Director of the Asian Department of the Tunisian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and many other high-level officials responsible for Asian affairs are invited. Their specific work is directly related to China-Arab cooperation. Aiming at promoting an objective and comprehensive understanding between China and Arab countries in the spirit of mutual respect, exchange and mutual learning, and jointly exploring a new path for China-Arab reform and development cooperation. This is another effective effort for the Center to promote the exchange of experience and dialogue between China and Arab countries.