Premier Zhu Rongji said March 5 that in the year 2000, China is still facing more opportunities than challenges and more hopes than difficulties in terms of the global climate.

Addressing the opening meeting of the Third Session of the Ninth NPC, Premier Zhu called on the nation to follow Deng Xiaoping's thinking on diplomatic work, adhere to an independent foreign policy of peace, oppose hegemonism, safeguard world peace and resolutely defend our state sovereignty and territorial integrity.

Zhu said, "We will strive for a long-term peaceful international environment and good surrounding environment for our socialist modernization drive."

He said China will unswervingly take the strengthening and development of unity and cooperation with other developing countries as a basic principle underlying the country's foreign policy, and will continue to maintain friendly good-neighborly relations and further consolidate and strengthen all-round cooperation with neighboring countries.

Intensified efforts will be made to strengthen cooperation characterized by equality and mutual benefit with developed countries on the basis of the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence, he said. China will continue to play an active and constructive role in the global multilateral arena.

"We stand ready to work hand in hand with the people of all countries to press forward with the establishment of a peaceful, stable, just and reasonable new international political and economic order, promote the development of the trend toward multi- polarity and make unremitting efforts to ensure world peace, stability, development and prosperity in the new century," he said.

Reviewing the diplomatic work in the past year, he said that in the face of the complex and volatile international situation in 1999, China adhered to an independent foreign policy of peace, vigorously promoted friendly relations and cooperation with other countries of the world, and scored new diplomatic achievements.

Meanwhile, China increased high-level contacts and engaged in more economic and trade cooperation and cultural exchanges with other developing countries, working with them to safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of developing countries through better coordination and cooperation in international affairs.

China further developed its friendly good-neighborly relations and cooperation with the surrounding countries. It maintained the traditional friendship with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), and consolidated the mutually-beneficial cooperation with the Republic of Korea (ROK). China's dialogue and cooperation with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) continued to expand and the partnership characterized by good-neighborliness and mutual trust was further developed. Sino-Vietnamese relations were strengthened with the signing of a treaty on the land border between the two countries. China's cooperation with Mongolia and countries in South and Central Asia continued on a good path. China continued to strengthen its friendly exchanges with African and Latin American countries.

Zhu said Sino-U.S. relations suffered a severe setback in the first half of last year. President Jiang Zemin's meeting with U.S. President Bill Clinton in Auckland helped improve the bilateral relations, he noted.

The two countries concluded a bilateral agreement on China's entry into the World Trade Organization, facilitating economic and trade cooperation between the two countries and the growth of bilateral relations.

The Sino-Russian strategic partnership of cooperation was enriched with the broad consensus reached during the summit meetings between the heads of state and government of the two countries.

The two European tours taken by President Jiang Zemin and the meetings between Chinese and EU leaders promoted the growth of Sino-European relations.

In a spirit of keeping in mind the past and looking toward the future, China is following up on the important consensus and agreements reached by Chinese and Japanese leaders. However, the attempts of a handful of ultra-right forces in Japan to obstruct and undermine Sino-Japanese relations must be guarded against.

New progress has also been made in China's mutually beneficial cooperation with other developed countries.

China actively participated in multilateral diplomatic activities and resolutely defended the purposes and principles of the UN Charter and the dominant role of the U.N. in maintaining world peace and development. China took a clear-cut stand against the fallacy of "human rights above sovereignty" and other "neo- interventionist" fallacies, thus presenting a positive image to the world of a country which adheres to principles, upholds justice, safeguards peace and promotes development.

The premier said, "We foiled the anti-China human rights draft resolution in the United Nations for the eighth time and shattered Taiwan's seventh attempt to "return to the United Nations". China's international standing continued to rise."