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Two giant Chinese pandas en route to Qatar for first-ever ‘panda diplomacy’ in Middle East ahead of this year’s World Cup

With the 2022 World Cup just about a month away, two giant pandas left China on Tuesday afternoon to begin their journey to Qatar, where they will spend their foreseeable future.

While the bears are going to the World Cup’s host nation in part to facilitate research, it is an overt example of “panda diplomacy”, in which China sends the iconic bears to foreign countries to strengthen bilateral ties.

One of the pandas is a three-year-old female named Si Hai, while the other is a four-year-old male named Jing Jing. However, once they arrive in Qatar, the male will be renamed Suhail and the female Soraya.

Suhail is the name of one of the most visible stars in the gulf region, while Soraya is the Arabic word for a star cluster called the Pleiades in English, also known as The Seven Sisters.

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