The university's president, Dr. Adnan Hassan, a former Minister of State, met the delegation and expressed his admiration for the way China had made remarkable achievements in eco- nomic development in recent years. Lebanon, together with other Arabian and third world countries, looked for- ward to China's positive role in global and regional affairs in the formation of a new international pattern. Lebanon was an open, richly diversified country that played an important role in ex- changes between East and West.