Abu Dhabi: Shaikh Hamad Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Chief of the Abu Dhabi Crown Prince’s Court, witnessed on Thursday the launch ceremony of the Shaikh Zayed Centre’s Library at the Beijing Foreign Studies University at the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair, where China is the guest of honour.
The centre aims to introduce Arab culture and strengthen cultural exchange in a way that reflects positively on bolstering relations between the two friendly countries.
The ceremony was attended by Dr Ali Bin Tamim, director-general of Abu Dhabi Media Company; Saif Gobash, director-general of the Abu Dhabi Authority for Tourism and Culture, and a number of Chinese officials.
In his speech during the ceremony, Dr Bin Tamim said, “The relationship between the UAE and China is one of the most successful and special between the two governments and two peoples. China’s links with the region and the UAE in particular are historic and based on mutual respect.”
Since the establishment of the UAE, the leaders of both countries exhibited their desire to establish and strengthen cooperation through constant dialogue and friendship, he said.
He added that the bridges of friendship between the UAE and China, which today witnessed one of its bright new chapters with the opening of the Shaikh Zayed Library, in cooperation with the Shaikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan Centre for Arabic Language and Islamic Studies and the Beijing Teachers’ University and Publishing House, “reflects good relations between the two countries, governments and peoples”.
He noted that culture does not know borders, distances, barriers and differences, but it always works on opening wide horizons and building new bridges that eventually achieve harmony and trust in the service of the relations between countries.
Dr Bin Tamim said that the Shaikh Zayed Centre was launched to teach Arabic language in Beijing. His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Abu Dhabi Crown Prince and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, recently ordered to renovate the centre within the framework of friendship and desire for openness and strengthening of intellectual and cultural ties with those countries, while striving to spread values and noble Arabic and Islamic culture, he added.
