Shaojin Chai recalled the buzz surrounding preparations for a series of welcoming events in the United Arab Emirates just before President Xi Jinping's visit to the country in 2018.

柴紹錦至今難忘2018年迎接習近平主席訪問阿拉伯聯合酋長國的一系列活動。

Chai, an assistant professor in the department of international relations at the University of Sharjah in the UAE, had been asked by some Emirati cultural and news institutions to take part in their events, including a cultural event to be attended by Xi's wife, Peng Liyuan.

柴紹錦是阿聯酋沙迦大學國際關系系助理教授，曾受阿聯酋文化和新聞機構邀請，參加他們組織的活動，包括習近平主席夫人彭麗媛出席的文化活動。

"Everybody was excited," Chai said. "It was the first time since (1989) that (a Chinese) head of state had visited the UAE," he said, referring to the December 1989 visit by then president Yang Shangkun. The visit was reciprocated in 1990 when the UAE's late founding father, Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan, visited China, six years after diplomatic relations between the two countries were established in November 1984.

柴紹錦說：“所有人都很激動。這是1989年以來，中國國家元首首次訪問阿聯酋。”中國和阿聯酋于1984年11月建交。1989年12月，時任中國國家主席楊尚昆訪問阿聯酋。1990年，阿聯酋已故總統謝赫·扎耶德·本·蘇丹·阿勒納哈揚訪問中國。

Relations between China and the UAE have been greatly promoted since Xi's visit, analysts say.

分析人士認為，習近平訪問阿聯酋極大推動了兩國關系的發展。

To have the leader of a great power visit the UAE "is significant for the UAE, both strategically and symbolically", Chai said.

柴紹錦也認為，一個大國領導人的到訪本身“對阿聯酋就具有戰略意義和象征意義”。

Du Wei, the Chinese director at the Confucius Institute at Zayed University, said Xi's visit boosted collaboration in education between China and the UAE, especially since the UAE government was set to launch a Chinese-language program in 100 public schools.

而對于扎耶德大學孔子學院中方院長杜偉來說，習近平的訪問推進了中國和阿聯酋之間的教育合作，阿聯酋政府將在100所公立學校啟動中文教學項目。

Xi's visit "promoted, facilitated and also made" the launch of the Chinese-language program official, Du said.

用杜偉的話講，習主席的訪問“推動、促進、促成”了中文教學項目的正式啟動。

"Traditionally, people here think that the Chinese language is difficult to learn," said Du, who expressed regret over missing Xi's visit because she was accompanying Emirati students on a 20-day study visit to China at the time.

“過去，阿聯酋人認為學中文是很難的。” 杜偉說，當時她正帶領阿聯酋學生在中國進行為期20天的參觀考察，因此錯過了習主席的訪問，對此她表示非常遺憾。

"Since (Xi's) visit, people feel there's a need to study the language. They are more interested in understanding China."

“習主席訪問阿聯酋后，這里的人們開始覺得有必要學習中文。他們對中國更感興趣了。”

Du said she was among the team of specialists who produced an initial study on introducing Chinese-language programs in collaboration with the UAE's Ministry of Education. She selected and interviewed 20 teachers to start the program, she said. It developed quickly and is now available in 141 public schools.

杜偉稱，阿聯酋教育部與她所在的專家團隊合作開展引入中文教學項目的初步研究。為了啟動該項目，她挑選并采訪了20名教師。該項目進展迅速，目前已在141所公立學校推廣。

During Xi's visit, China and the UAE signed several deals, covering energy, finance, agriculture and e-commerce, including approval of the first Chinese State-owned financial services company being set up in Abu Dhabi.

在習近平訪問阿聯酋期間，中國和阿聯酋簽署了多項協議，涵蓋能源、金融、農業和電子商務領域，包括批準在阿布扎比設立第一家中國金融服務公司。

The Abu Dhabi National Oil Co and the China National Petroleum Corp also agreed to explore joint business opportunities at that time.

阿聯酋阿布扎比國家石油公司和中國石油天然氣集團公司當時也就探索商業合作取得了共識。

Today, with both countries also dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic, the UAE embassy in Beijing said the annual value of bilateral trade between China and the UAE has reached $50 billion and is on track to increase to $200 billion by 2030.

如今，在共同抗擊新冠疫情的背景下，阿聯酋駐華大使館表示，中國和阿聯酋的雙邊年度貿易額已達到500億美元，并有望在2030年增加到2000億美元。

"In fact, let's say that what we saw afterward proved that the visit was a base line for trust and cooperation that came after, and was very important for this partnership, especially on science," said Rasha Al Joundy, a Gulf expert and senior researcher at the Dubai Public Policy Research Centre.

迪拜公共政策研究中心海灣問題專家兼高級研究員拉沙·阿隆迪稱：“事實上，后來證明，這次訪問是兩國隨后建立互信合作的基礎，對兩國的伙伴關系至關重要，尤其是在科學領域。”

"China and the UAE have cooperated intensely to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. In fact, the UAE has hosted the clinical trials for Sinopharm, and it has manufactured Sinopharm (vaccines). … The UAE had the highest rate of vaccination because of that."

“中國和阿聯酋在抗擊新冠疫情方面進行了密切合作。事實上，中國國藥集團開發的新冠疫苗在阿聯酋開展了臨床試驗，并在阿聯酋進行生產……因此，阿聯酋的新冠疫苗接種率處于世界前列。”

In December 2020, the UAE was the first country to approve emergency public use of Sinopharm-developed COVID-19 vaccines. In March last year, the UAE announced that it would start making those vaccines locally as part of a joint venture between the Chinese pharmaceutical company and an Abu Dhabi enterprise.

2020年12月，阿聯酋成為第一個批準緊急使用國藥新冠疫苗的國家。去年3月，阿聯酋宣布，國藥集團和阿布扎比一家企業開展合作，在當地生產疫苗。

The collaboration between China and the UAE facilitated a vaccination program for low-income countries, especially in Africa, proving that bilateral relations were not affected during the pandemic and that trade in other sectors also continued, Al Joundy said.

阿隆迪稱，中國和阿聯酋的合作推動了低收入國家，特別是非洲國家的疫苗接種計劃，證明中阿雙邊關系沒有受到疫情影響，其他領域貿易也在繼續。

"There were no shortages of any product coming to the UAE from China whatsoever during the pandemic," she said, adding that the increased mutual trust generated during Xi's visit became crucial, given the issue of food security today.

阿隆迪稱，疫情期間，中國出口阿聯酋的產品沒有出現任何短缺。考慮到如今的糧食安全問題，習近平訪問阿聯酋增進兩國互信的意義變得至關重要。

Ebrahim Hashem, former adviser to the chairman of the Abu Dhabi Executive Office, an authority responsible for Abu Dhabi's long-term strategies, and Asia Global fellow at the Asia Global Institute at the University of Hong Kong, said Xi's "critically important" visit in 2018 helped upgrade the relationship between the UAE and China from "strategic partnership to comprehensive strategic partnership".

阿布扎比執行辦公室主席前顧問、香港大學亞洲全球研究所亞洲全球研究員易卜拉欣·哈希姆稱，習近平在2018年對阿聯酋進行的"極其重要"的訪問推動將中阿關系從"戰略伙伴關系"升級為"全面戰略伙伴關系"。該機構是負責阿布扎比長期戰略的機構。

Awareness of China and its civilization and culture has greatly improved since Xi's visit, Hashem said. Before the visit, everybody "was talking about the West and I was talking about China", he said.

哈希姆稱，自習近平訪問以來，人們對中國以及這個國家的文明和文化的認識有了很大提高。他說，在習近平訪問阿聯酋之前，每個人“都在談論西方，而我在談論中國”。

"But after that visit a major paradigm shift happened in the minds of a lot of Emiratis. In my opinion, there are almost no limits on the potential of this relationship," Hashem said.

哈希姆說：“但在那次訪問之后，許多酋長國的思想發生了重大轉變。在我看來，兩國關系的潛力幾乎是無限的。”

"The oil (sector's contribution to) GDP is less than 30 percent. The non-oil (contribution to GDP) is above 70 percent, but we have our long-term vision, and we see major synergies between our long-term vision and the Belt and Road Initiative," he added.

他還稱：“我們的長期愿景與'一帶一路'倡議很契合。”

In April, the UAE's Federal Competitiveness and Statistics Center said the country's non-oil sector contribution to GDP amounted to 72.3 percent last year, up from 71.3 percent in 2020.

根據阿聯酋聯邦競爭力和統計中心4月給出的數據，去年該國非石油行業對GDP的貢獻達72.3%，高于2020年的71.3%。

Hotels and restaurants contributed 21.3 percent, wholesale and retail 14.1 percent and health and social services sector 13.8 percent, it said.

其中，酒店和餐飲業占21.3%，批發和零售業占14.1%，衛生和社會服務業占13.8%。

"We want to have a larger contribution from the manufacturing sector to our GDP," Hashem said. "We're interested in technology. There's huge collaboration now between us and China in the area of technology (and) in the digital economy.

哈希姆稱：“我們希望制造業能對GDP做出更大貢獻。我們對技術感興趣，如今我們和中國在技術（和）數字經濟領域有著大量合作。”

"Renewables is another area, (as are) digital technology, digital economy and, of course, security. There is a deeper discussion when it comes to security, but it's one area that may actually take some time to develop and evolve."

“另外還有可再生能源領域，當然還有安全領域。”

來源：中國日報

編輯：董靜

記者：JAN YUMUL