Unity and cooperation highlighted at ASEAN gathering

Beijing and its Southeast Asian neighbors have managed to shore up unity and pragmatic cooperation at the recently concluded China-ASEAN Foreign Ministers' Meeting in Manila, yielding tangible outcomes.

At the annual meeting, attended by Foreign Minister Wang Yi and his counterparts in the Philippine capital, the ASEAN countries said they look forward to closer strategic coordination with China to bolster their own development resilience and advance high-quality connectivity.

They also expressed support for "deeper cooperation in trade and investment, the digital economy, artificial intelligence, climate change, clean energy and efforts to combat transnational crime", according to a Foreign Ministry release.

China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations have been each other's largest trading partner for six consecutive years, with annual trade volume exceeding $1 trillion last year.

As a major outcome, the meeting adopted a joint statement of the China-ASEAN foreign ministers on addressing the impact on the region of the evolving situation in the Middle East and the strengthening of regional energy cooperation.

"The foreign ministers of ASEAN member states and the ASEAN secretary-general spoke highly of the achievements of ASEAN-China cooperation and unanimously affirmed that China is one of ASEAN's most important friendly neighbors and dialogue partners," Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian said on Thursday.

This year marks the fifth anniversary of the establishment of the China-ASEAN Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, which has covered and benefited a combined population of over 2 billion people.

At the meeting, Foreign Minister Wang said that China stands ready to work with ASEAN in forging closer cooperation for the well-being of the region's peoples and in "reinforcing unity to tackle new challenges and uncertainties".

On behalf of China, Wang put forward a four-point proposal for catalyzing the China-ASEAN cooperation: safeguarding the regional environment for peace and development, bolstering the resilience of regional development, advancing green and innovation-driven development, and remaining people-centered.

Xu Liping, director of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences' Center for Southeast Asian Studies, said the China-ASEAN perspective on the region's governance is "based on the Asian approach that features mutual respect, consensus-building and consideration for each other's comfort".

"As the world's current round of technological revolution and industrial transformation keeps gaining momentum, the building of the China-ASEAN community with a shared future has yielded remarkable achievements, becoming the most dynamic model of cooperation in the Asia-Pacific region," he said.

Regarding the South China Sea, Wang said that the sea is "our common homeland", and that China and the ASEAN countries have the wisdom and capability to continue handling the South China Sea issue effectively, ensuring that peace, stability, cooperation and friendship become the dominant narrative on the sea.

Wang urged countries in the region to strictly honor the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea.

He called on the countries to resist external attempts to stoke tensions, reject any nation's efforts to stir trouble in the South China Sea, and keep the initiative for safeguarding regional peace and stability firmly in their own hands.

Stressing that a critical window for finalizing the Code of Conduct in the South China Sea is now open, Wang called on all parties to seize the opportunity, fend off interference and deliver on that objective.

At the meeting, the foreign ministers of ASEAN member states expressed their hope of reaching the Code of Conduct as early as possible this year. They look forward to working with China to make ASEAN-China relations "a stabilizing force for regional peace and development and a model dialogue partnership", said Lin, the Foreign Ministry spokesman.

During his stay in Manila, Wang also held a number of bilateral meetings on the sidelines with senior officials of over 10 countries from both within and outside the region, such as the United States, the United Kingdom, Brazil, India, Australia and Canada.