On the afternoon of March 25, 2019, a 19-member delegation of the UAE National Defense College (NDC), led by Commodore Tareq Khalfan Abdulla Al Zaabi, visited the Institute of West-Asian and African Studies (IWAAS) and had a discussion with experts from IWAAS in the No.1 meeting room. Professor Wang Lincong, Assistant of General Director of IWAAS & Director of Division of International Relation Studies, presided over the discussion, at which Professor Tang Zhichao, Professor Yu Guoqing, Associate Professor Wang Feng, Professor Wei Min, Associate Professor Chen Mo, Associate Professor Wang Jian, Associate Professor Tong Fei, Associate Professor Jiang Yingmei, Associate Professor Liu Dong, Dr. Wang Jinyan, Dr. Zhang Bo, Liu Linzhi and Dr. Zhu Quangang were present. In the meeting, Professor Wang Lincong gave guests a warm welcome and introduced the characteristics and research situation of IWAAS.

Members of the delegation were from several UAE government departments and organizations in the field of diplomacy, internal affairs, security, economic affairs, city planning etc.. Experts from IWAAS answered questions from the delegation about China’s experiences in development, problems that China was currently facing with and China’s Middle East policy. Besides, some issues were discussed by two sides in depth, including the geopolitical situation in the Middle East, the security situation in the Gulf, Saudi-Iran relations, the development of the GCC, UAE’s role in Middle Eastern affairs and China-UAE relations etc..