King Mohammed leaves Saudi Arabia for visit to China
Morocco-China, Politics, 2/4/2002

Morocco's King Mohammed VI left this Monday Jeddah heading for China where he will be paying this Feb.5 through Feb.7 an official visit at the invitation of President Jiang Zemin.

The royal visit, the first by a Moroccan king to China, comes after a visit by the Chinese president in October 1999 and a visit to China in 1998 by Moroccan premier, Abderrahmane Youssoufi.

The two countries established diplomatic relations at ambassadorial level in 1956 and signed their first trade agreement in 1957.

China's ambassador in Morocco, Xiong Zhanqi, said although the two countries are far away from each other geographically, they are united by a longstanding friendship that dates back to the 7th century. He also recalled how in the 14th century, a Chinese sailor traveled to Morocco while in the same era Moroccan great globetrotter Ibn Battuta visited China.

The diplomat underscored that Morocco was one of the first African countries to recognize China and the two countries have been since then maintaining close cooperation and friendly relations in the political, economic and cultural fields.

Moroccan-Chinese relations were good in the past, they are excellent today and will be knowing better prospects in the future as the two countries share the view that economic development and improving the populations living standards require a world context of peace and stability and are sharing the same stances regarding international topical issues, the Chinese diplomat summed up.

He further stressed that in addition to excellent political relations, economic cooperation between Morocco and China is developing as bilateral trade exchanges reached in 2001 US$ 384 million, recording a 14% growth. China is also encouraging its enterprises to relocate their activities in Morocco, operate financial and technical investments in projects that generate jobs and encourage skills transfer.

On his way back from China, the king will visit the royal family of Thailand and will meet Thai premier, before undertaking a "brotherhood and friendship" visit to the United Arab Emirates.

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