Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani Meets with Wang Yi
2021-10-27 14:38

On October 26, 2021 local time, Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani met with State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Doha.

Wang Yi first conveyed President Xi Jinping's cordial greetings and best wishes to Tamim. Wang Yi said, under the strategic guidance of the leaders of the two countries, China-Qatar relations have sustained sound and steady development. China always believes that all countries in the world, big or small, are equal members, and all civilizations should respect mutually, learn from each other and achieve common development. China firmly supports Qatar's exploration of a development path suited to its national conditions, and opposes any external interference in Qatar's internal affairs. China appreciates Qatar's fairness in international affairs as well as its understanding of and support to China's legitimate position. China stands ready to strengthen strategic cooperation with Qatar, jointly safeguard multilateralism, oppose unilateralism, and promote the building of a new type of international relations and a community with a shared future for mankind.

Wang Yi said, China and Qatar are highly complementary in economy. The two countries have been expanding practical cooperation in the fields of energy, infrastructure, equipment manufacturing and industrial parks, which have brought great benefits to both sides. China is ready to continue its all-round strategic cooperation with Qatar and help Qatar speed up the path of economic diversification and improve its capability of independent development. China is willing to expand mutual investment with Qatar, and welcomes Qatar to actively participate in China's high-level opening-up and make good use of the opportunities offered by China's super large-scale market.

Wang Yi said, days ago, President Xi Jinping delivered an important speech on China's democratic politics, comprehensively elaborating on the rich content, theoretical foundation, and practical function of the whole-process people's democracy in China. Democracy is the universal value of all mankind. The nature of democracy is to integrate a country's national conditions with the needs of its people. Democracy is not a special right reserved to an individual country. It is in itself undemocratic to use a single yardstick to examine whether a country is democratic. History has repeatedly proved that imposing subjective will on others and trying to transform other countries will inevitably lead to chaos and failure.

Tamim asked Wang Yi to convey his sincere greetings to President Xi Jinping. He said, President Xi Jinping's important remarks on democracy are very incisive. Qatar appreciates and supports China's commitment to developing democratic politics with Chinese characteristics. China is a major country with extensive international influence and also an important strategic partner of Qatar. The two countries share the same or similar views on international and regional affairs and maintain close communication and coordination. Qatar is firmly committed to developing friendship with China and opposes any country's interference in China's internal affairs. Qatar is willing to work with China to elevate bilateral relations to a new height. Qatar is actively seeking to expand investment and cooperation with China and is willing to serve as a long-term and stable energy supplier to China. Qatar welcomes more Chinese enterprises to invest in Qatar and participate in the construction of the Qatar Free Trade Zone.

The two sides also exchanged views on supporting each other in successfully hosting the upcoming Beijing Olympic Winter Games and the Doha World Cup. Tamim thanked Chinese enterprises for building the main stadium of the World Cup finals as scheduled. He said, Qatar opposes the politicization of sports and supports Beijing in hosting the Olympics Winter Games. He believes that Beijing Olympic Winter Games will be as wonderful and successful as the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.

On the same day, Wang Yi held talks with Qatari Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani.