Chinese embassy in Kuwait celebrates PRC founding anniversary

KUWAIT CITY, Sept. 23 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese embassy in Kuwait held on Thursday an online celebration of the 72nd anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China.

During a speech at the celebration, Li Minggang, Chinese Ambassador to Kuwait, said that over the past year, China met various challenges and marched forward with new achievements despite the impact of major changes in the world situation and the COVID-19 pandemic.

This year, we launched the "Spring Sprout" program whereby more than a thousand of Chinese citizens in Kuwait have been vaccinated with China-made vaccines, Li said.

"This provides a strong guarantee for their health and safety," he stressed.

The year 2021 also marks a milestone in the history of China-Kuwait relations, Li said, stressing that Kuwait is the first among Gulf states to establish diplomatic relations with China.

Despite changes in the international environment, China-Kuwait relations have advanced in a stable and healthy manner, the ambassador said.

Since the outbreak of COVID-19, the two countries have fought the coronavirus with solidarity and mutual assistance, and seen remarkable resilience of bilateral relations and continuous progress in exchanges and cooperation in many fields, Li said.

China has remained the largest exporter and the biggest non-oil trading partner of Kuwait, he said, adding that the first half of this year saw a 32.3-percent year-on-year growth in bilateral trade volume to 9.43 billion U.S. dollars, while the crude oil imported by China from Kuwait reached 14.18 million tons during the same period, up 5.71% from a year ago.

"Our two countries maintain close communication and coordination, work together to promote regional peace and stability, take an active part in global cooperation against COVID-19 and uphold fairness, justice, unity and cooperation on international occasions," Li noted.

Further deepening China-Kuwait strategic partnership serves the common interests of the two peoples, Li said.

"Guided by the important consensus reached by the leaders of our two countries, I look forward to working with friends from various sectors in Kuwait to deepen our friendship and mutual trust and expand our results-oriented cooperation and people-to-people exchanges," Li added.

Waleed Al-Khubaizi, Assistant Foreign Minister for Asian Affairs of Kuwait, said that Kuwait is proud of its deep and distinguished friendship with China, which is witnessing growth in various fields and resulted in the establishment of a strategic partnership between the two countries.

He praised the fruitful cooperation and exchange of information and experiences between the two friendly countries to confront the coronavirus pandemic, expressing hope that the world will be able to overcome the impact of this pandemic as soon as possible.

Kuwait is keen to strengthen bilateral relations with China in various fields and look forward to more joint cooperation to achieve higher interests of the two friendly countries, he added.