From Mahnoor Makhdoom
BEIJING: A seven-member Pakistan’s military delegation headed by a senior military commander of GHQ attended the opening ceremony of the 9th Beijing International Xiangshan Forum officially began at Beijing International Convention Centre here on Monday.
Addressing the opening ceremony, China’s Defence Minister Wei Fenghe briefed the participants about defensive military strategy of China.
He said the size of the Chinese military was maintained at a moderate level and said, the number of armed forces personnel were reduced by 300,000. Currently, China has two million active servicemen and women. He also talked about the transparency of China’s military expenditure, adding that it has been kept under two percent of the country’s GDP in the past 30 years. That’s the lowest among permanent members of the UN Security Council.
Themed as “Maintaining International Order and Promoting Peace in the Asia-Pacific Region”, the three-day forum aims to discuss how to maintain an international order with the objectives and principles of the UN Charter at its core, and safeguard lasting prosperity in the Asia-Pacific region and global peace and stability in the new situation.
The forum consists of four plenary sessions, namely “Major Country Relations and International Order, Security Risk Management in the Asia-Pacific, Interests of Small and Medium-Sized Countries and Common Security, International Arms Control Regime and Global Security”.
In addition, there are eight concurrent sessions, including “Innovation in Security Concepts, Strategic Trust and Confidence-building Measures, Asia-Pacific Security Architecture, Dynamics in Maritime Security, International Cooperation on Counter-terrorism, Security New Circumstances in the Middle East, Scientific and Technological Innovation and International Security, and Artificial Intelligence and Future Warfare”.
There is also one special plenary session themed as “The 70th Anniversary of the Founding of the PRC and Peace and Development of the World”.
Since its inception in 2006, the forum has been growing in terms of its size, level, influence and fame. It is now the largest and highest-level track 1.5 security dialogue hosted by China.
