Children cheer as Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi walks with President Xi Jinping at the presidential palace in Cairo on Thursday. [Photo/Agencies]

Both China and the Middle East will steer the investment funds and private capital of the two parties toward major projects under the Belt and Road Initiative, he said.

Li Shaoxian, a senior expert in Middle East studies at Ningxia University in Yinchuan, in the Ningxia Hui autonomous region, said, "Political stability and economic reinvigoration — the two key elements for ensuring regional stability — are inseparable from each other".

In the case of Egypt, Li said huge endeavors have been made to get its domestic stability back on track, "but problems may return if its economy does not recover quickly".

He Wenping, a senior expert in Middle East studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, observed that the Middle East — standing at the intersection of Europe, Asia and Africa — enjoys a profoundly strategic location, and "it is undergoing a critical phase as it rolls out political restructuring and social transformation".

"China has not been absent from Middle East affairs. It has been increasingly proactive when conducting peaceful diplomacy with the region in recent years … and co-building the Belt and Road Initiative may be a part of the peaceful diplomacy," He said.

In Iran, Xi will meet Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and Iran's Parliamentary Speaker Ali Larijani, as well as holding talks with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani.

The newspaper Iran published a signed article by Xi on Thursday.

Contact the writers at xingzhigang@chinadaily.com.cn and zhangyunbi@chinadaily.com.cn