The forum was initiated in the opening years of the new millennium, after China and Arab countries had witnessed a steady growth in friendship and cooperation, generating the need for a new mechanism to fully exploit their cooperative potential and thus further enhance their cooperative relations. Following years of preparations, China and the Arab League (AL) - whose 22 members have all established diplomatic relations with China - formally launched the China-Arab Cooperation Forum in 2004, when Chinese President Hu Jintao visited AL headquarters in Cairo.
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