Xi meets with King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud of Saudi Arabia

RIYADH -- Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday met with King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud of Saudi Arabia at Riyadh's al-Yamamah Palace.

Saying that he was glad to visit Saudi Arabia again after six years and could still recall vividly his last visit, Xi expressed his pleasure to see the important consensus they reached back then on developing China-Saudi Arabia relations being translated into concrete cooperation.

China-Saudi Arabia cooperation enjoys broad prospects. China sees Saudi Arabia as an important force in the multi-polar world and attaches great importance to developing the comprehensive strategic partnership with Saudi Arabia, said Xi.

China stands ready to further strengthen strategic communication and deepen cooperation across the board with Saudi Arabia to deliver for the development interests of the two countries and safeguard world peace and stability, said Xi.

King Salman extended his warm welcome to Xi for visiting Saudi Arabia again and said that Xi's successful visit to Saudi Arabia in 2016 was truly memorable.

In recent years, China and Saudi Arabia have made excellent progress in creating synergy between strategies and conducting bilateral cooperation in various fields. The two sides have reached important common understandings on many issues, and what are China's interests are Saudi Arabia's interests as well, said King Salman.

King Salman noted that he highly values relations with China and is ready to work with Xi to advance Saudi Arabia's comprehensive strategic partnership with China and deliver more benefits to both peoples sharing friendly relations. This is also conducive to regional and global peace, stability and tranquility.

The two heads of state co-signed in person the comprehensive strategic partnership agreement between the People's Republic of China and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and agreed to take turns to host biennial meetings between the heads of state of the two countries.

Ding Xuexiang and Wang Yi attended the meeting.