On September 12-13, the Third China-Arab States University Presidents Forum was held at Yinchuan. Presidents and scholars of 77 foreign universities and 36 Chinese universities engaged discussions on focus of collaboration and innovative collaboration models and eventually created China-Arab Higher-Learning Institutions Strategic Cooperation Action Plan (2015-2019).

On the university presidents forum, the delegates centered their discussions around the opportunities to China and Arab universities from the 'One Belt and One Road' initiatives and lessons learned from past successful collaboration etc. XJTU VP Xi Guang gave an address on Promotion of China and Arab Higher Education Collaboration in Alignment with Silk Road Legacies. He addressed that the University Alliance of the New Silk Road (UANSR) could facilitate the Sino-Arabian cooperation in higher education and both the Chinese and Arabian institutions should deepen their cooperation in industrial and academic partnership, joint lab, international student and faculty exchanges to achieve win-win.

On the forum, over ten universities from China, Egypt, Malaysia, and Jordan etc signed agreements to endorse the UANSR.

The China-Arab Universities President Forum was co-organized by the Chinese Ministry of Education and Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region to strengthen Sino-Arabian exchanges and collaboration. The permanent location is Yinchuan. The forum was created in 2011. It is held every two years. So far, it’s been convened for three times.