On December 18, 2024, Ambassador Zhang Jianwei held a press conference to elaborate on China-Kuwait relations and China’s development path and foreign policies. The briefing was attended by reporters from a dozen or more local mainstream media outlets including Kuwait News Agency, Kuwait TV, Al-Anba, Al-Rai and Al-Qabas, as well as reporters of Xinhua News Agency and China Central Television.
When talking about China-Kuwait relationship, Ambassador Zhang said 2024 has witnessed joint efforts of both sides to advance the implementation of the outcomes produced at the meeting between the two heads of states last year and achieve major progress in our cooperative projects. Our exchanges at all levels were enhanced, political mutual trust was deepened, and pragmatic cooperation kept advancing. China has remained the largest trading partner of Kuwait. Vehicles imported by Kuwait from China grew by 21.8 percent this year, becoming a major highlight of bilateral trade. Chinese enterprises contracted with the Kuwaiti side to undertake several new major projects in oil, gas, architecture and other areas. Progress in the largest housing project of Kuwait undertaken by the Chinese enterprise has been smooth, which is a positive contribution to Kuwait’s economic and social development and improvement of the people’s wellbeing. What’s more, the two sides signed an agreement to set up the Gulf region’s first Chinese language smart classroom. Several Chinese art troupes staged performance during their visits to Kuwait. A number of cultural events such as the Chinese cuisine and culture festival, the art show “A moment to remember in Kuwait”, the “Xin Jiang is a wonderful land” evening and the “Distant and close relations: silk roads connecting two worlds” cultural forum, were well received in the country.
With respect to China’s development path, Ambassador Zhang noted that 2024 has witnessed the successful convening of the Third Plenary Session of the 20 Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC). At the meeting, it was stressed that adhering to peaceful development, China will further deepen reform across the board and promote high-standard opening up to advance Chinese modernization. This provides much-needed certainty to a world rocked by changes and turmoil and will create new development opportunities for the rest of the world. China’s commitment to advancing high-quality Belt and Road cooperation brings hope for the global South to realize development and rejuvenation.
When it came to China’s foreign policies, Ambassador Zhang provided a review of major diplomatic engagement of President Xi Jinping this year including his presence at the meeting of the Council of Heads of Member States of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and at the BRICS Summit, stressing that China practices true multilateralism and works to contribute its share as a major country to promoting world peace and development. Talking about the spillover of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and frequent flare-ups of regional hotspot issues, Ambassador Zhang observed that China has always upheld fairness and justice and continued to contribute its share to de-escalation of the conflict and the situation. China has facilitated the signing of the Beijing Declaration by various Palestinian factions and supports Palestine’s full U.N. membership. The second meeting of the China-Saudi Arabia-Iran Trilateral Joint Committee was held. China firmly supports the people of Middle East countries in holding their future in their own hands.
Speaking of the rotating presidency of the SCO China has assumed for 2024-2025, Ambassador Zhang said the SCO has been a major mechanism for multilateralism in the world today, with its “Shanghai Spirit” recognized and applauded by a growing number of countries. Likewise, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) is the most vibrant sub-regional organization in the Middle East. Five GCC countries including Kuwait have been the dialogue partners of the SCO. As Kuwait is now the GCC President, China stands ready to work with Kuwait and other GCC countries to increase communication and coordination and keep expanding our cooperation in the areas of political security, interconnections, trade, investment, green development and people-to-people exchanges, in an effort to deliver greater tangible benefits to the peoples of the members of the SCO family and regional countries.