Li to attend series of leaders' meetings on East Asian cooperation

Premier Li Keqiang will attend a series of leaders' meetings on East Asian cooperation via video link from Tuesday to converge consensuses and deepen cooperation among regional countries.

According to Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin, Li's participation at the two-day meeting was at the invitation of Brunei's Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah. Brunei is the rotating chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations this year.

Li will attend the 24th China-ASEAN Leaders' Meeting, the 24th ASEAN, China, Japan and South Korea Leaders' Meeting and the 16th East Asia Leaders' Summit, the spokesman announced at a daily news briefing.

Calling East Asia the most dynamic region in the globe with greatest potentials, Wang said cooperation in the region enjoys overall sound development and ASEAN-centered cooperation mechanisms of the region plays an important role in promoting dialogues and cooperation as well as maintaining regional stability and development at current.

"China places ASEAN high on its diplomatic agenda when engaging with neighboring countries and always attaches great importance to East Asian regional cooperation," he said.

As this year marks 30th anniversary of the establishment of dialogue relations between China and ASEAN, the spokesman said both sides are working to upgrade strategic partnership and forge a closer community of shared future, which would continuously inject fresh impetus to East Asian cooperation.

In the meantime, Wang noted that East Asian cooperation is confronted with more complex factors, including continuous coronavirus, uneven economic recovery and attempts by a few countries to band up together to build small blocs.

China hopes that these meetings can help the region to strengthen the ability to respond to challenges in the field of the public health by consolidating regional anti-COVID-19 achievements, deepening vaccination cooperation and improving the storage of medical materials for emergency use, Wang said.

The spokesman said regional countries should make joint efforts to promote green recovery and sustainable development.

Wang noted that countries in the region hoped to synergy plans of post-epidemic development and adopt news ways to advance the industrial chains and supply chains in a coordinated and balanced manner.

Regional countries also should strengthen cooperation on energy transformation in an orderly way and jointly tackle climate change, Wang added.

The momentum of economic integration should be further consolidated, the spokesman said. Countries are expected to push the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership to come into force and be implemented in due time to deliver dividends as early as possible.

China maintains that countries should uphold ASEAN-centered regional cooperative structure which features openness and inclusiveness, said the spokesman.

Regional flashpoints and sensitive issues should be properly resolved through dialogue and consultation, Wang said, adding that China opposed any attempts to create the divide and damage regional peace and stability.