China Contributes to Regional Peace, Stability and Development: TangHistory has and will continue to prove that China is a positive factor and major force in safeguarding peace and promoting development, Chinese Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan said here Thursday."Since we last met at this Forum, China has made new contributions to peace, stability and development in the Asia-Pacific region, " he said in his speech at the annual gathering of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Regional Forum (ARF). China has been vigorously pressing ahead with its reform and opening-up, and its economy has maintained a fairly rapid growth while taking a favorable and important turn, he said. On the cross-Strait relations, he said that China has firmly implemented the fundamental principle of "peaceful reunification and one country, two systems" and President Jiang Zemin's eight-point proposal on the question of Taiwan, and worked hard to advance the cause of peaceful reunification of China. Working continuously to develop goodneighborly and friendly relations with its surrounding countries, China has signed or issued documents on bilateral cooperation oriented towards the 21st century with most of the ASEAN member states, he said. He noted that the process of "Shanghai Five", namely, China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, is "moving toward in a sound manner and playing a significant role in promoting regional and world peace and stability". The active participation in East Asian cooperation and other regional as well as international cooperation, he stressed, has further strengthened the mutually beneficial cooperation between China and other countries in Asia and the world at large. "We have always been supportive of the ARF dialogue and cooperation, and actively participated in and successfully implemented a number of Confidence-Building Measures (CBM) Projects," he said. As a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council and a country in the Asia-pacific region, China will continue to perform its duty in promoting peace and stability in the region and the world at large, he added. In 1996, China became a full member of ARF, which serves as a multilateral consultative forum aimed at promoting preventive diplomacy and confidence building among the nations in the Asia-Pacific region. |
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