China on Thursday vowed to comprehensively upgrade its friendly and cooperative relations with the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

"China attaches great importance to the development of its ties with the UAE and would like to further deepen cooperation in trade, energy, infrastructure construction, culture and law enforcement," said senior Chinese leader Zhou Yongkang in meeting with Sheikh Hazza bin Zayed al-Nahyan, national security advisor of the UAE in Beijing Thursday.

Zhou, a Standing Committee member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, said the 26 years since China and the UAE forged diplomatic ties has seen significant development in bilateral relations, with frequent high-level visits, deepening political mutual trust and fruitful pragmatic cooperation.

The UAE has been China's second largest trading partner in the Arab world for five consecutive years and is the nation in the Middle East where China sends most commercial and labor service personnel, Zhou said.

China highly appreciates the UAE government's support on the issues related to Taiwan, Tibet and Xinjiang, he said.

Sheikh Hazza bin Zayed al-Nahyan conveyed a message from UAE President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed al-Nahyan to Zhou, saying that the UAE is willing to work with China to promote continuous development of bilateral ties.

The security advisor added that he would like to actively enhance UAE-China security cooperation in anti-terrorism.

From: Xinhua