The closing ceremony of the 6th Asian Beach Games is being held on Thursday evening in Sanya, a coastal city in south China's tropical island province of Hainan.
Runnning from April 22 to 30, the Games feature 14 sports, 15 disciplines and 62 events, and has brought together around 10,000 participants, including more than 1,600 athletes.
According to the chief director of the closing ceremony, the closing ceremony will showcase the moments of hard work and glory on the field during the Games, as well as the moments of friendship and warmth off the field.
"The closing ceremony will be held at the same venue with the opening ceremony, which also reflects our principle of running the event in a thrifty manner. We used a very short period of time to complete the transition work in the venue. At the closing ceremony, the huge circular screen behind me will present moving moments from athletes during the competitions. Finally, we will wrap up the entire closing ceremony with songs from the six major regions of Asia," said Huang Peiling, the chief director.
The Games marks the first time for Hainan to host a continental-level beach sports event. It is also the first major international sporting event since the island-wide Hainan Free Trade Port was inaugurated last December.
It is also the second time for China to host Asian Beach Games, after the 2012 edition in Haiyang, east China's Shandong Province.
Asian Beach Games closes in south China's Hainan
The United Arab Emirates' decision to withdraw from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) signals a broader strategic recalibration as the Gulf producer seeks to diversify its energy export routes and reduce vulnerability to regional chokepoints, according to a Middle East affairs expert.
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) announced Tuesday it will withdraw from OPEC, marking the end of its decades-long alignment with the cartel.
Against this backdrop, the UAE is actively exploring alternative logistics pathways to safeguard its energy exports. A key focus is developing overland connections to bypass the strategically sensitive Strait of Hormuz.
"The UAE's primary energy loading and unloading ports are currently located in the Gulf region, within the Strait of Hormuz. However, given the increasingly uncertain security situation around the Strait of Hormuz, the UAE has gradually come to realize that its existing transportation system -- which relies on transit through the Strait of Hormuz to connect with international energy markets -- will be difficult to sustain over the long term. Consequently, the UAE hopes to establish overland connections linking its main inland energy production areas with the Fujairah Port, where crude oil can be loaded onto vessels for export to international energy markets," said Wang Jin, director of the Center for Strategic Studies at Northwest University in China.
While the strategic rationale is clear, implementation faces significant hurdles. Wang noted that infrastructure constraints could limit the effectiveness of this pivot, particularly given the UAE's ambitious production targets.
"However, this strategy involves two key challenges. First, the existing overland pipeline infrastructure cannot fully meet the UAE's so-called energy transport capacity requirements. According to current UAE projections, the country's average daily energy production may reach approximately 5 million barrels in the future. Yet the transport capacity of the existing pipelines falls far short of this anticipated volume. Therefore, the UAE must consider how to further expand the capacity of its overland energy pipeline network in the future, and whether new pipelines should be constructed to connect with the Fujairah Port," he said.
Beyond pipeline capacity, long-term success hinges on port infrastructure and sustainable financing -- questions that remain unresolved as the UAE weighs its next moves, according to Wang.
"More importantly, as the Fujairah Port -- a deep-water port -- gains increasing strategic significance, the UAE must also consider whether the port should be expanded and its capacity upgraded to accommodate more vessels for loading and unloading energy-related products. Thus, for the UAE, critical questions remain: how to develop effective planning, how to advance infrastructure construction, and where to secure funding for related projects. Consequently, although the UAE currently has proposals to bypass the Strait of Hormuz, whether and when these plans can be realized will likely require a long and complex process ahead," he said.
UAE's OPEC exit reflects strategic shift amid energy security concerns: expert
