BEIJING, 1 June 2006 — China called yesterday for closer Sino-Arab trade and energy ties as foreign ministers from the region, including the Palestinians’ Hamas representative, gathered in Beijing for a two-day forum. Foreign ministers and their representatives from 22 Arab countries were welcomed by President Hu Jintao at the Great Hall of the People before the official start of the China-Arab Cooperation Forum Ministerial Meeting.
“This year marks the 50th anniversary of relations between China and the Arab region,” Hu told delegates including Arab League chief Amr Moussa and Mahmoud Al-Zahar, the senior Hamas figure who is Palestinian foreign minister.
“We want to jointly and resolutely build on the experience gained over the last half century... and pave the way for future relations and further develop cooperation in all areas.” At the official opening of the forum, Chinese State Councilor Tang Jiaxuan urged Arab countries to expand trade and energy cooperation with China. “China and the Arab countries should take advantage of their economic complimentarity and keep intensifying, expanding and enriching our cooperation,” he said.
“It is advisable to increase dialogue and cooperation in the energy area and establish a long-term and stable relationship of mutually beneficial cooperation in our joint effort to maintain the stability of the global energy market.” Trade between China and the 22 member states of the Arab League last year totaled $51.3 billion, but Tang said this could double to $100 billion in 2010 if the two sides continued to cooperate. Energy-hungry China has previously made little secret of its desire to secure far more resources from the oil and gas-rich Arab nations.
Meanwhile, Moussa said the forum was a good platform to carry out consultations on a range of contentious political issues. “(It) has already given us a good opportunity to carry out political consultations on many issues of common concern, in particular the Palestinian question, Iraq, Sudan, UN reform, anti-terror, weapons of mass destruction,” he said.
On the Middle Eastern conflict, Hamas scored a diplomatic coup amid sustained Israeli and US-led efforts to isolate the Islamic movement when China extended an invitation to Zahar to attend the forum. With Zahar’s presence, China became the second United Nations Security Council member after Russia to host a Hamas leader since the Islamist movement formed a government following its victory in Palestinian elections in January.
Meanwhile, China’s central bank yesterday pledged to gradually diminish its role in controlling the nation’s currency to allow market forces more say in setting the value of the yuan. “In the initial stage after the yuan exchange rate formation mechanism reform, the central bank had to adopt open-market operations to soothe market fluctuation and to play the role of ‘fluctuation stabilizer’,” the People’s Bank of China said in its quarterly report.
But as the market matures, it will “gradually reduce the frequency of its open-market operations and weaken their intensity as a way to gradually step out of the market.” Open-market operations refers to China’s central bank buying and selling its own currency to restrict movements in its value. China scrapped the yuan’s long-standing peg to the US dollar last July in favor of an informal link to a basket of currencies, but it has been slow to loosen its grip on the currency’s value.