Thriving date palm trees symbolize China-UAE cooperation

Date palms, a major food crop and an important agricultural export product in Arab countries, have witnessed the fruitful bilateral agricultural cooperation between China and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Following a 2019 agreement, the UAE donated 100,000 date palm seedlings to China, with the first batch of 1,500 seedlings planted in Wenchang, a city in the tropical Hainan Province in south China, in December 2021.

Between 2021 to 2025, the UAE provided nearly 30,000 more seedlings to China in several batches.

Over the years, China and the UAE have carried out collaborative research on dates, relying on the expertise of the Chinese Academy of Tropical Agricultural Sciences.

Advanced seedling propagation technology, cultivation techniques, and pest and disease control methods have led to a thriving China-UAE Friendship Forest of Date Palm in Wenchang today.

"This project was launched by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the president of the UAE. A gift to China of 100,000 palm date palm trees, seedlings. To see that this tree that has always been part of the UAE's culture, even before the union it symbolizes our culture, it symbolizes, or it focuses on food security, and it also symbolizes resilient agricultural practices," said Amna Al Dahak, UAE Minister of Climate Change and Environment, in an interview with China Global Television Network (CGTN).

"The project, I think, is a promising project that is going to yield more results as it progresses toward its completion. Seeing the date palm trees cultivated, grown on Chinese land, this is going to form new projects and new collaborations, and it will again signify the very unique UAE-China relations culturally and across food security and resilient agriculture," she continued.

Thriving date palm trees symbolize China-UAE cooperation

The multilateral system is "under attack" amid global turmoil, President of the 80th UN General Assembly Annalena Baerbock warned in her remarks on Wednesday.

In her briefing on the priorities for the resumed 80th Session of the General Assembly, the UNGA president noted that the current multilateral system does not collapse all in a sudden, but "crumbles piece by piece" in divisions, compromises, and lack of political commitment.

The president called all the UN member states to defend the UN Charter and international law and promote cross-regional cooperation.

She also urged to push forward the work of the UNGA on certain critical issues with a strong majority, rather than an absolute consensus among all member states. Such act is not a failure of multilateralism, but "an affirmation of it," she said.

The foundational principles of the institution should not be eroded by appeasement, she said, calling the member states to show courage, leadership, and responsibility at the UN's "critical make-or-break moment."

"The UN needs you. Your support, your leadership, your principle, stand, your cross-regional cooperation, if we are to preserve and modernize this institution, if we are to make it, rather than break it," she said.

UNGA President warns global multilateral system "under attack"