On October 15, 2008, Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi met in the Foreign Ministry with envoys to China from six Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries.

The envoys again congratulated the complete successes of the Beijing Olympic Games and the Shenzhou-7 manned space mission, saying that currently the relations between the GCC countries and China are in the best period in history with continuously increasing cooperation in all areas. The GCC countries hope to enhance friendly exchanges and mutually beneficial cooperation with China and promote all-round development of bilateral ties, they added.

Yang thanked for the GCC countries’ support to China on issues concerning China’s core interests and major concerns, noting that China looks at ties with the GCC and its members from a strategic perspective. China hopes that both sides will make concerted efforts to continue advancing their friendly cooperation in all fields and improve the group cooperation mechanism so as to push forward bilateral friendly cooperative ties.