BEIJING: Senior Chinese diplomat Wang Yi on Monday called for joint efforts to protect, promote and achieve Asia’s peace, prosperity and revitalization.
Wang, director of the Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and a member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, made the remarks when addressing the opening ceremony of the 2023 International Forum for Trilateral Cooperation, an annual forum between China, Japan and South Korea, in Qingdao, east China’s Shandong Province. Wang called on China, Japan and South Korea to uphold mutual respect, openness, inclusiveness and independence to achieve harmony, solidarity and self-improvement, aiming to firmly safeguard the correct direction of cooperation among the three countries.
The first joint declaration issued by the three countries 20 years ago pointed out that trilateral cooperation aims to promote development, strengthen cooperation in East Asia, as well as maintain regional and world peace and prosperity, which is the original aspiration of trilateral cooperation, and the mission of the three countries, Wang said. He added that trilateral cooperation over the past two decades has grown to be the most influential sub-regional cooperation mechanism in Asia, providing important impetus for moving towards modernization of the three countries and Asia.
In order to seek geopolitical gain, certain countries outside the region in recent years deliberately exaggerated ideological differences and wantonly created exclusive circles, attempting to replace cooperation and unity with confrontation and division, Wang said, warning that the promotion of trilateral cooperation will be disturbed and tensions in the region will be exacerbated if this trend is allowed to develop.
“Asia is our common home,” Wang said, calling on all countries in Asia to practice open regionalism, cultivate a sense of strategic autonomy, safeguard regional unity and stability, free from bullying, and resist the return of the Cold War mentality. The world is undergoing profound changes unseen in a century, and Asia is at an important juncture from tradition to modernity, Wang noted.
Noting that China, Japan and South Korea are all important economies in the world, with a combined population accounting for one fifth of the world’s total and a combined GDP exceeding one quarter of the world’s total, Wang called for joint protection, promotion and efforts for Asia’s peace, prosperity and revitalization. –The Daily Mail-CGTN news exchange item
