DOHA, July 5 (Xinhua) -- Embassy of China in Qatar hosted a reception on Wednesday evening to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Qatar.
The reception was attended by the Governor of Qatar Central Bank Sheikh Abdulla bin Saoud al-Thani, the Secretary General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Ahmed bin Hassan al-Hammadi, heads of diplomatic missions and other senior officials.
Ambassador Li Chen spoke highly of the bilateral relations. He said China-Qatar relations have developed steadily on the basis of mutual respect and benefit since the two countries established diplomatic ties in 1988.
"The two countries have enjoyed continual high-level exchanges and have backed each other on issues concerning core interests and major concerns," he said.
Li highlighted the successful visit of Qatar's emir to China in 2014 during which the two sides announced the establishment of a strategic partnership.
"The two countries signed a memorandum of understanding on co-promoting the Belt and Road Initiative, which marked a new era of comprehensive and rapid development of the bilateral relations," he added.
The ambassador also said that in recent years, the two countries have made positive achievements in fields such as energy, trade, and infrastructure, and have actively started new cooperation in finance and investment.
The trade volume between the two countries rose up to 8.08 billion U.S. dollars in 2017, achieving a dramatic 160-fold growth since the establishment of diplomatic ties.
Qatar has become China's second largest source of liquefied natural gas imports. China is Qatar's fourth largest trading partner and second largest source of imports.
In 2015, China opened in Doha the Middle East's first center for clearing transactions in the Chinese yuan.
Currently, Qatar Airways has direct flights to seven cities in China. In 2017, more than 45,000 Chinese visited Qatar.
Last April, Qatar and China have agreed to exempt their citizens from obtaining pre-entry visas to both countries.
