NANJING, Nov. 14 (Xinhua) -- On the sidelines of the Fifth China-Arab States Political Parties Dialogue being held in the eastern Chinese city of Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, an orca-shaped marine robot is outshining other smart devices, such as quadruped robots, in capturing the attention of participants.
With streamlined contours and a metallic sheen, the marine robot "Orca Max" developed by Seahi Robotics can operate across the full ocean depth range from 0 to 10,000 meters.
When introducing this robot to visitors, Cao Ying, co-founder of the company, said the cooperation meeting offered the Suzhou-based company a valuable opportunity to explore Arab markets.
Free from manual remote control, the marine robot can carry out autonomous operations in complex ocean currents, lightless deep-sea zones and areas with no communication coverage.
Freddy Elbaiady, vice president of the Egyptian Social Democratic Party and member of Egypt's House of Representatives, stopped at the booth to secure more detailed information about this product.
"Egypt boasts numerous ports with strong demand for maritime shipping and vessel maintenance," he said, while adding that the robot has enormous potential in Egypt for vessel cleaning, the construction, operation and maintenance of marine new energy facilities, port inspection, dredging and deep-sea applications.
Cao said that the robot has been deployed at more than 70 major ports worldwide. Driven by the company's self-developed AI model, the robot can provide safe, efficient and sustainable general-purpose ocean robotics solutions for global ocean development.
The two-day meeting, which opened on Friday, has gathered over 100 leaders of political parties and organizations as well as business, think tank and media representatives from 22 Arab countries.
The 2026 dialogue has achieved two milestones: full representation of all 22 Arab countries, and the inaugural China-Arab Business Dialogue on the Belt and Road Initiative as a side event.
During the event, entrepreneurs from more than 200 Chinese and Arab firms shared experience on Belt and Road cooperation as well as collaboration in trade, investment, science and technology.
Saleh Al Khabti, president of Acwa China, told Xinhua that he was pleased to learn that his hometown, the port city of Jeddah in Saudi Arabia, now has a direct shipping route linking it with Suzhou.
The direct container shipping route he referred to opened in October, linking Suzhou's Taicang Port with Jeddah and cutting transit time by two to three weeks.
He said the new logistics channel will facilitate trade between China, Saudi Arabia and the broader Middle East.
Al Khabti added that the company opened its Beijing office in 2009, and established headquarters in Shanghai in 2023. In 2024, it inaugurated a Global Innovation Center in Pudong District of Shanghai, to foster collaboration in renewable energy, energy storage, green hydrogen and water desalination.
"As part of our strategy in China, we aim to invest up to 30 billion U.S. dollars in China by 2030. We also plan to increase our procurement of Chinese equipment by 15 billion dollars annually, and we view Jiangsu Province as a key pillar for tapping promising cooperation opportunities in this area," he said.
This year marks the 70th anniversary of the beginning of diplomatic relations between China and Arab countries, as well as the 10th anniversary of the launch of the China-Arab States Political Parties Dialogue mechanism.
Figures from the International Department of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee show that China has signed Belt and Road cooperation documents with all 22 Arab countries, carrying out more than 200 cooperation projects that benefit nearly 2 billion people on both sides. Bilateral trade between China and Arab countries, meanwhile, reached 422 billion U.S. dollars in 2025.
According to the foreign affairs office of the Jiangsu provincial government, green energy and digital intelligence have emerged as new growth drivers for cooperation between Jiangsu and Arab countries. In digital intelligence, autonomous driving technologies developed by firms from Jiangsu are making inroads in the Middle East, where they are helping empower local smart mobility and logistics. In infrastructure, a localised optical fibre and cable production base has been set up in Egypt, while large batches of buses have been exported to Algeria, with a knock-down assembly plant built there. ■
