On Jan.17, Mr. Kong Quan, Spokesman of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of P.R.China announced in the regular press conference that His Majesty King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia is to visit China from 22-24 Jan.2006, at the invitation of Chinese President Hu Jintao. In the conference, the spokesman answered the following questions about this visit.

Q: Would you please brief on the itinerary of the upcoming visit of Saudi Arabian King? In particular what the two sides will talk about? Will the two sides discuss the security of energy?

A: An important background information is that this is the first visit to China of the King of Saudi Arabia since the establishment of diplomatic relations between our two countries in 1990, 15 years ago. And it is also the first official visit to China of the incumbent King of Saudi Arabia after his succession. The Chinese side attaches much importance to this visit. President Hu will hold an important political meeting with him. I can't tell you more details on the agenda of this meeting now. However, I believe since it's an important meeting between the heads of the two countries, they will review the development of bilateral relations over the past 15 years and exchange views on further developing bilateral ties and expanding cooperation on all fronts.

You mentioned issues of the energy security and oil. I am sure the two sides will touch upon the mutually beneficial cooperation in the field of energy. Besides President Hu, King Abdulahh will also meet with other leaders of China. His activities are mainly focused in Beijing. He won't visit other cities in China.

Q:Will the Energy Minister and other Ministers of Saudi Arabia accompany their King in his visit to China? Will any agreement be signed, especially on energy cooperation? We know that many oil companies of China want to make investment in foreign countries. Will you talk about something on this?

A: I am very sorry that now I don't have the list of the Cabinet members in the company of Saudi Arabian King in his visit to China. I am not quite clear about whether any agreement on energy cooperation will be signed, but I would like to make a double check for you. To make it up, I would like to share with you some information I have. From January to November, 2005, the bilateral trade between China and Saudi Arabia enjoyed very rapid development, amounting to around 14.5 billion US dollars, a striking growth of 59% compared with the same period of the year before last. You know in the same period, the foreign trade of China grew by around 23%, so you can see that the bilateral trade between China and Saudi Arabia overrun by a large margin the growth speed of China's overall foreign trade. We imported 20.01million tons of crude oil from Saudi Arabia last year. At the same time, China maintains very good exchanges and cooperation with Saudi Arabia in the fields of culture, health, science and technology and communication.