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News Analysis: Sino-ASEAN Partnership of Mutual Trust Enters New Period
The China-ASEAN partnership based on mutual trust and confidence has entered a new period with increasingly deeper involvement and participation by China in coordination and cooperation with the Association of Southeast Asia Nations (ASEAN) on regional and global affairs.
The Sino-ASEAN ties have been further boosted as Chinese Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan led a delegation to a series of ASEAN-sponsored forums and conferences that took place in Hanoi this week.
The serial conferences, which included annual meetings between ASEAN and dialogue partners and direct dialogue between ASEAN and China on a broad spectrum of issues ranging from politics, security, preventive diplomacy, globalization, economic cooperation, and narrowing development gap among nations.
The ASEAN forum conferences were preceded by the 34th ASEAN Foreign Ministerial Meeting (AMM-34), an annual meeting rotating among member states. Vietnam hosted this year's meeting in Hanoi on July 23-24.
Chinese Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan said at a meeting of the Eighth ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF-8) that China has in recent years established cross-century good-neighborly and friendly relations with most Asian countries.
China has attached great importance to and taken an active part in both intra- and inter-regional cooperation, he said.
"As mankind enters the new century, the relations between China and ASEAN are growing steadier and more mature, and a new chapter has been opened for counterparts in a direct dialogue with ASEAN members that followed an earlier meeting between ASEAN and its 10 dialogue partners including China," he said.
The bilateral ties between China and ASEAN have developed in several epoch-making phases. The year of 1996 witnessed the upgrading of the China-ASEAN relations from Sectoral Dialogue partnership to Full Dialogue partnership.
In 1997, Chinese President Jiang Zemin and ASEAN leaders issued the Joint Statement, proclaiming the establishment of the good-neighborly partnership of mutual trust oriented towards the 21st century.
The China-ASEAN relations were further cemented this year with a record high level of cooperation in economy and trade.
In the first quarter of 2001, the trade volume between China and ASEAN reached 9.666 billion U.S. dollars, up 21.8 percent over the same period last year.
China and ASEAN also have stepped up cooperation and mutual support on major regional and global issues in international forums and organizations, such as APEC, ASEM, ASEAN 10+3 Meeting, ASEAN Regional Forum, East Asia and Latin America Cooperation Forum, and the United Nations.
China voiced firm support for the purposes and principles of the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia, and ASEAN's endeavor to put in place a Southeast Asia Nuclear Weapon Free Zone.
In return, ASEAN stands for China's bid to join the World Trade Organization (WTO). ASEAN Secretary-General Rodolfo C. Severino Friday reaffirmed ASEAN's support for China's WTO membership.
Severino told a press conference at the end of the ASEAN Post Ministerial Conferences that China's "participation in the world trade system dose not only represent a competitive challenge, but also an opportunity for ASEAN products to enter Chinese market more freely." He said China's accession to the WTO represents a larger market and a source of investment for countries.
Deputy Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said at the same press conference here Friday that China's cooperation with ASEAN is based on its consideration of the needs of ASEAN members, especially those of less developed countries within the regional group.
China proposed earlier cooperation with ASEAN in five major sectors, namely, agriculture, human resources development, cooperative development of the Mekong River Basin, ICT (information and communications technologies) and mutual investment in the first few years of the new century.
These developments indicated that there existed a solid foundation and huge potential of the friendly relations and cooperation between China and ASEAN.
On security matters, China maintained close consultations with ASEAN at the ASEAN Regional Forum, which was established in July 1994 as the most important venue for discussions on security issues in the Asia-Pacific region.
In fact, the ASEAN Regional forum has served as a vital bridge for China and ASEAN countries to conduct coordination and cooperation on security-related issues in the region.
At the ARF meeting, Chinese Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan elaborated on China's policy on Asia-Pacific security, which is committed to the maintenance of peace and stability and the promotion of prosperity and progress in the Asia-Pacific region.
China has put forth a new concept of security with mutual trust, mutual benefit, equality and coordination at its core.
The Chinese Asia-Pacific security strategy has the following basic features: on the basis of safeguarding national sovereignty and development, peace is stressed in its foreign policy, defense in military strategy and cooperation in regional security.
The Chinese position has been highly appreciated by a large number of ASEAN countries, which believed that China, as a peace-loving and responsible country, can make positive contributions to regional peace and stability.
Good-neighborliness and mutual trust are an important cornerstone for the smooth development of the Sino-ASEAN relations, while dialogue and cooperation are a strong bond fostering a closer relationship between China and ASEAN countries.
It is in the fundamental interest of both China and ASEAN members to enhance their partnership based on mutual confidence, in a bid to seek common development in the long run.
For this purpose, the two sides have agreed to increase trust and understanding to bring about an all-round development of their good-neighborly partnership of mutual trust in the new century.
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