OIC to develop strategic relations with China

RIYADH - Hürriyet Daily News

Secretary-General of the OIC Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu meets with Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao in Riyadh Jan 14 to develop strategic relations in this photo.

Secretary-General of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu met with Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao in Riyadh yesterday and discussed ways of developing relations between the OIC and China, as well as the various current issues and developments in the region and some parts of the Muslim world.

The importance of establishing joint projects in light of the secretary-general’s visit to China in June 2010 was also emphasized during the meeting. For his part, İhsanoğlu underlined that relations between China and the Muslim world have not faced any problem in the past and stressed the need to develop a mutual relationship that would be in the interest of world stability.

Dialogue best means to solve problems: İhsanoğlu

The meeting pointed out the importance of strengthening the strategic relationship between the OIC and China and emphasized a continuation of cooperation between the sides and bilateral relations between China and the Muslim world. The relationship should not be confined to times of crisis only, the meeting emphasized. İhsanoğlu said the meeting came at a time when parts of the Muslim world were passing through difficult times and people demanded democracy, good governance and social, economic and developmental rights. Dialogue was the best means for solving problems in order to save bloodshed, he said. While İhsanoğlu stressed the importance of organizing a scientific symposium in Beijing next June to address the relations between China and the Muslim world in the past and the future, the Chinese prime minister said his country accorded great importance to the convening of this symposium in cooperation with the OIC Research Centre for Islamic History, Art and Culture (IRCICA) and the Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing, noting the readiness of China to strengthen the OIC’s efforts to come out with positive results that support China’s relations with the Muslim world.

The meeting stressed the importance of establishing a trade exhibition at the World Trade Center in Ninshia, China, which will be organized in cooperation between the OIC Islamic Centre for Development of Trade (ICDT) and Ninshia officials. The Chinese prime minister also expressed his country’s interest in supporting development projects and infrastructure in OIC countries, including the Dakar-Port Sudan railway project from the Red Sea to the Atlantic Ocean.