This year is the 40th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Yu Jianfeng, chairman of China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC), held a meeting with Mohamed Al Hammadi, managing director and CEO of Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation (ENEC), in Beijing on the night of May 30.

At the meeting, they signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) for strategic cooperation in the field of nuclear power plants, marking an important step taken by the two sides to further consolidate and expand the two countries' cooperation in the development and utilization of nuclear energy.

Noting that the world will benefit from the peaceful utilization of nuclear energy between China and the UAE, Yu said that the CNNC has built comprehensive and reliable industrial and supply chains of the nuclear industry, gained world-leading experience in the building and operation of nuclear power plants, and successfully achieved a number of advanced technologies such as Hualong One, a domestically designed third-generation nuclear reactor, and high-temperature gas-cooled reactor over the past years.

These achievements have provided the high-quality development of China's nuclear energy with systematic support and laid a solid foundation for bilateral cooperation, Yu said and added that there is a bright future for the cooperation between the CNNC and the ENEC in the years ahead against the backdrop of a sound momentum of development of the China-UAE relations. He called on the two enterprises to further strengthen their cooperation on the development and utilization of nuclear energy and nuclear materials, make new contributions to the high-quality development of the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and the building of a China-UAE community with a shared future.

Hammadi said that it is a milestone event for China and the UAE to sign the cooperation document on the peaceful use of nuclear energy, creating an institutional guarantee for enterprises of the two countries to conduct relevant collaboration.

Hammadi said that the fast development of artificial intelligence and other high-tech industries in the UAE has created a huge demand for clean energy. He spoke highly of outstanding performance made by the CNNC in the building and operation of nuclear power plants and hoped that the two sides will engage in in-depth exchanges in sci-tech innovation and the building of industrial chains, strive for tangible progress in the promotion of relevant cooperation, and translate into reality the blue print drawn by heads of the two countries for the development of bilateral relations.