Deepening Friendship and Cooperation and Meeting Challenges through Joint Efforts

--Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi talks about President Hu Jintao's state visits to Malaysia and Singapore and his attendance at the 17th Economic Leaders Meeting of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC)

From November 10 to 15, 2009, Chinese President Hu Jintao paid state visits to Malaysia and Singapore and attended the 17th Economic Leaders Meeting of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) in Singapore.

Upon the conclusion of Hu’s tour, Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi, who was accompanying the Chinese president during the trip, introduced to the accompanying reporters President Hu’s current tour and its outcomes.

Yang said that Hu's visit was made against the backdrop of a steady global economy that is improving for the better and of the profoundly changing regional situation. It was an important diplomatic move aimed at deepening good-neighborly relations, promoting cooperation in the Asia-Pacific region and joining efforts with the countries in the region to tackle crises and meet challenges. During the six days, President Hu attended more than 30 multilateral or bilateral events, including meetings with leaders of Malaysia and Singapore, having extensive contacts with people from various walks of life and delivering important speeches at the APEC meeting. Local and international media gave prominent, objective and positive coverage to Hu's visits. Throughout the Chinese president's Asian tour, there was always a warm and friendly atmosphere and the visit, with its rich content, outstanding highlights and fruitful outcome, is a complete success, the foreign minister said.

I.  Promoting China-Malaysia Strategic Cooperation to a New Level

This year marks the 35th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Malaysia. In recent years, the two countries have witnessed a sound growth momentum of bilateral ties, marked by frequent exchanges of high-level visits, close people-to-people exchanges and fruitful cooperation in various fields. In view of the international financial crisis, China and Malaysia expressed their readiness to deepen cooperation as bilateral relations face new opportunities for development.

During his stay in Malaysia, President Hu met with Malaysian Supreme Head of State Mizan Zainal Abidin and had an in-depth exchange of views with Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak on ways of strengthening bilateral strategic cooperation in an all-round manner with consensus reached in a wide range of areas. Both sides agreed to continuously expand and deepen pragmatic cooperation in all areas and strive to advance their strategic cooperative ties to a higher level.

Enhancing the traditional friendship and promoting practical cooperation is a focus of President Hu’s current visit to Malaysia. Hu reviewed the 35 years of China-Malaysia relations and summarized the experience of the successful development of bilateral ties. The Chinese president proposed that, to further push forward the development of China-Malaysia relations, both sides do good work in implementing the Joint Action Plan for Strategic Cooperation, strive to expand the scope of cooperation, seek new forms of cooperation and nurture new growth points of cooperation for common development. Hu raised specific proposals in this regard, including stabilizing bilateral trade, strengthening investment cooperation, expanding and deepening cooperation on energy resources, finance, science and technology, culture, tourism and defense security and cooperating closely in international and regional affairs. The Malaysian leaders gave positive responses to Hu's proposal and fully agreed with Hu's important views on further development of bilateral ties. The Malaysian side noted the bilateral ties have withstood the tests of time and mutual respect and mutual trust are core values for development of the ties. To develop Malaysia-China relations is conducive not only to the development of the two countries, but also to that of the entire region. The Malaysian side is willing to work with China on the new basis to explore new areas of cooperation, in efforts to cement bilateral strategic cooperation. The two countries agreed to jointly promote the development of China-ASEAN relations, advance the process of cooperation in East Asia, strengthen coordination within the multilateral frameworks including APEC, and make new contributions to development in the Asia-Pacific region. During the visit, both sides signed a number of cooperation agreements concerning higher education, infrastructure construction and financial regulation.

The Malaysian government and people highly praised President Hu’s visit, holding that the well-timed visit promoted bilateral ties to a new height and pushed bilateral cooperation for more substantive outcomes.

II.　Pushing China-Singapore Friendly and Mutually Beneficial Cooperation to a New Level

Yang said China and Singapore enjoy profound friendship between their peoples. Since the establishment of diplomatic ties, both sides have tapped their respective advantages, upheld innovation and comprehensively advanced cooperation in all areas. As next year marks the 20th anniversary of the diplomatic ties between the two countries, bilateral ties are facing a new historical starting point.

During his visit to Singapore, the Chinese president met with Singaporean President S. R. Nathan, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, Senior Minister Gok Chok Tong and Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew, exchanging in-depth views with them on China-Singapore relations as well as international and regional issues of common concern and reaching consensus on a number of issues.

President Hu spoke highly of the remarkable outcomes achieved in the development of bilateral ties. The complex and profound changes in the world situation today set higher demands on China-Singapore cooperation. Both sides should always regard and develop their ties from a strategic height and long-term perspective, continue to follow the spirit of mutual respect, equality and mutual benefit and take the opportunity of the 20th anniversary of diplomatic ties next year to push bilateral ties to a new level. President Hu put forward a six-point proposal for deepening the mutually beneficial cooperation between the two countries. The proposal includes maintaining high-level exchanges, bringing into full play the bilateral cooperation mechanism, bettering the intergovernmental flagship projects of the Suzhou Industrial Park and the Tianjin Eco-City, and strengthening defensive security and multilateral cooperation. The Chinese president announced in Singapore that to mark the 20th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Singapore next year, China will provide Singapore with a pair of giant pandas for cooperative research. The announcement was warmly applauded by the Singaporean people who take this move as a new symbol of the China-Singapore friendship.

Singaporean leaders spoke highly of the progress achieved in various cooperation fields. The two sides believed that cooperation was well conducted in such important chosen fields as high-tech, in facilitating Chinese enterprises to "go global", in encouraging Singapore-China cooperation at local levels and in the training of human resources. The Suzhou Industrial Park has achieved outstanding progress in the past 15 years and the Tianjin Eco-City project is also going smoothly. The Singaporean leaders proposed that in order to advance their future cooperation, both sides should cooperate closely in such new areas as city planning, water treatment, environment protection and social harmony and learn and draw on each other’s experience for mutual benefit and win-win results.

Expanding cultural and people-to-people cooperation and building friendship is a new highlight of this visit. During his stay in Singapore, President Hu attended the signing ceremony of relevant cooperation documents concerning the setting up of the Chinese Culture Center in Singapore as well as China-Singapore human resource training cooperation. He announced Zhejiang University as a Chinese cooperative partner of the fourth public university in Singapore built with China-Singapore-U.S. trilateral cooperation. President Hu also made a special trip to visit Nanyang Girls' High School and held discussions with teachers and students there. All these activities greatly promoted the cultural and people-to-people cooperation between the two countries.

III. Proposing New Measures on Joint Efforts to Tackle the Global Financial Crisis

Yang said although the world economic situation has shown some signs of stabilization and recovery, the prospects for a full recovery are still not clear, and trade and investment protectionism in various forms is on the rise. There was general concern about the long-term economic growth of the Asia-Pacific region and the world at large in the "post-crisis" era.

During his visits to Malaysia and Singapore, Hu gave a comprehensive and detailed account of the policies and measures China has adopted to fight the international financial crisis and the successes achieved in this regard. The leaders of Malaysia and Singapore spoke highly of the positive and constructive role China has played in the fight against the financial crisis in Asia and the whole world and they were convinced that China would continue to play an important role in the "post-crisis" era. A stable, dynamic and prosperous Chinese economy would contribute greatly to economic recovery in Asia and the world at large, they agreed.

Sustaining growth is an important topic of this APEC Economic Leaders Meeting. President Hu made important suggestions on this issue. Hu said the profound impact of the financial crisis is still evident and the world economic upturn is not yet firmly established. A comprehensive world economic recovery still faces many uncertainties and destabilizing factors, the president said. In addition, the Doha Round negotiations have been fraught with difficulties and twists and turns, and global issues have become more pronounced. These are all daunting challenges to the full recovery and long-term growth of the world economy, including the economy in the Asia-Pacific region, he said. At this critical juncture, "we should all the more get united, follow the principle of openness, cooperation and mutual benefit, strengthen coordination and work together to secure the momentum of world economic recovery and promote balanced and orderly economic growth," said the Chinese president. China is ready to join hands with the rest of the international community to address the challenges and strive to seek inclusive, sustainable and balanced economic growth. Hu’s proposals won warm applause and positive response from other APEC leaders. All members agreed to continue with economic stimulus policies to consolidate the foundation of economic recovery and join efforts to promote world economic growth.

IV. Expounding New Proposals　on　Supporting Sound Development of Multilateral Trading System

Yang said against the background of the global financial crisis, the momentum of protectionism has clearly been gathering force recently. As the Doha Round negotiations have stalled, most APEC members hope to push for the process of the talks in an effort to resist trade protectionism.　Hu expounded on China's principled position on opposing trade protectionism and supporting the multilateral trading system. He said the APEC member economies should advance the World Trade Organization's Doha Round negotiations on the basis of locking in the existing achievements and respecting the Doha mandate. "We are ready to speed up the settlement of the remaining issues and work for comprehensive and balanced outcomes at the negotiations at an early date in order to achieve the goals of the development round," Hu said. "We must be committed to our promises, strongly oppose trade protectionism in all its manifestations, be vigilant against and correct the 'invisible' protectionism acts in various forms, reduce and eliminate trade barriers, and solve trade disputes through dialogue and coordination, thus creating favorable conditions for full recovery and long-term development of world economy," Hu said. All members pledged to resolutely oppose protectionism in any form and support multilateral trading regime.

V.　Pushing APEC Regional Cooperation to Make New Achievements

Yang said this year marks the 20th anniversary of the founding of the APEC. China, as a member of the big APEC family, has always attached importance to and taken active part in APEC cooperation in all areas. China, through participating in APEC cooperation, has promoted its self-development and has also made important contributions to economic growth in this region and the entire world. In his address at the two-day APEC Economic Leaders Meeting, President Hu called on the APEC to reform and improve itself to raise the efficiency of cooperation so as to keep advancing with the changing times. Also, the APEC should focus more on its unique strengths, continue to promote trade and investment liberalization and facilitation, scale up input and promote even greater achievements in economic and technical cooperation, and continue to increase its institutional dynamism through reform and innovation, Hu said. To promote APEC economic and technical cooperation, he said, the Chinese government will allocate 10 million U.S. dollars for the establishment of the China-APEC Cooperation Fund to encourage and support participation by relevant Chinese departments and businesses in APEC economic and technical cooperation. The Chinese president also called on all parties to take an active part in the Fifth APEC Human Resources Development Ministerial Meeting in 2010 and continuously support and participate in activities of the Asia-Pacific Network on Forest Rehabilitation and Sustainable Management. His proposal won high appraisal and was warmly applauded by the participating leaders. They pledged to accelerate regional economic integration, support capacity building of developing members and commit to realize free and open trade and investment set forth in the Bogor Goals. They also agreed to enhance economic and technological cooperation, strengthen the role of APEC and ensure its status as the most important forum for regional economic cooperation.

VI. Promoting Solution of Global Issues to Make New Progress

Yang said with the approaching of the Copenhagen climate change conference, cooperation on climate change has become a pressing task for the international community. At an informal breakfast meeting on climate change held on the sidelines of the APEC Economic Leaders Meeting, President Hu raised important proposals on joint efforts to meet the challenge of climate change. Hu emphasized the international community is facing the severe challenge of climate change, which matters to human survival and development. The international community has actively taken steps to tackle climate change despite the existence of some difficulties in the negotiation process, he said, adding that the world should be full of confidence, redouble efforts, and strive to overcome difficulties in this regard to achieve positive results. Hu said the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Kyoto Protocol have laid the legal foundation for the international community to collaborate on addressing climate change and the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities has already become a universally accepted and basic principle for tackling climate change. Also, the "Bali Roadmap" has made clear the requirements and orientation of international cooperation on climate change, he added. All parties concerned should abide by the above principle and requirements, fully demonstrate their political will, turn their political will into real action to push forward the process of relevant talks and work to realize the goal of strengthening the implementation of the UNFCCC in a comprehensive and sustainable way, the Chinese president said. In recent years, international talks on implementing the "Bali Roadmap" had made progress and reached consensus on a number of aspects, he said, calling on the international community to build on the consensus and progress and work to reach further consensus, and push for a positive outcome of the Copenhagen conference. Hu's proposal was highly appreciated by the participating leaders, especially those from developing countries.

On the sidelines of the APEC Economic Leaders Meeting, the Chinese president made extensive contacts with leaders from other APEC members and held talks with his counterparts from Russia, Indonesia, Chile and Peru to exchange views on furthering bilateral ties and deepening pragmatic cooperation.

During his visits, President Hu also called on the staff of the Chinese Embassies in Malaysia and Singapore and representatives from Chinese-funded institutions, overseas Chinese and Chinese students.

Yang finally said it is believed that Hu's state visits to Malaysia and Singapore and his attendance at the APEC meeting will undoubtedly exert great and far-reaching influence on full-scale promotion of China's relations with both Malaysia and Singapore as well as ASEAN, and also on their cooperation in meeting global challenges such as the current international financial crisis and climate change, supporting the multilateral trading system, speeding up the process of regional economic integration and promoting long-term development of the APEC.