Second, we have actively pursued China's diplomacy to boost ties with all other countries. In the short span of two years since the 18th CPC National Congress, President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang have made 17 foreign visits, covering over 50 countries across the five continents and meeting foreign heads of state and government close to 500 times. This has created a "Chinese whirlwind" in the world. Over the past year, we have achieved the following progress on major diplomatic fronts:

On the neighborhood front, we have worked vigorously to build a community of shared interests and destiny. We have maintained frequent high-level interactions and all-round cooperation at various levels and in various fields with our neighbors in 2014. As a result, our converging interests have been expanded and our mutual understanding has been enhanced.

Following President Xi Jinping's call to pursue neighborhood diplomacy featuring amity, sincerity, mutual benefit and inclusiveness made last year, we jointly hosted with India and Myanmar commemorative activities to mark the 60th anniversary of the initiation of the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence. The commemoration, which added new historical dimensions to these five principles, was well-received by China's neighbors and the international community.

We have advanced pragmatic cooperation with countries in Northeast Asia. President Xi Jinping visited the Republic of Korea (ROK) and Mongolia respectively. He enriched the China-ROK strategic partnership by defining it with "four partnerships", namely, partnership for common development, partnership for regional peace, partnership for Asia's renewal and partnership for world prosperity; and he elevated China's relations with Mongolia to a comprehensive strategic partnership. Acting in the spirit of "taking history as a mirror to guide the future", China reached a four-point common understanding with Japan on how to handle issues affecting bilateral relations, thus taking the first step towards improving China-Japan relations.

We have continued to enhance relations with Southeast Asian countries. Building on the 2+7 cooperation framework proposed by Premier Li Keqiang last year, we called for working with ASEAN to adopt a master strategy for growing China-ASEAN relations. We launched negotiations on upgrading the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area, discussed the signing of a treaty of good-neighborliness, friendship and cooperation between China and ASEAN countries, and began substantive consultations on forging the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership.

The Chinese leaders have visited all Central Asian countries. President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang paid successful visits to Tajikistan and Kazakhstan respectively. Line C of the China-Central Asia natural gas pipeline has gone into operation and construction of Line D has begun. The China-Eurasia Economic Cooperation Fund was established. The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Agreement on Facilitation of International Road Transport was signed after ten-year-long negotiations. And the SCO started the process of admitting new members.

We have strengthened friendship and cooperation with South Asian countries. During his visit to the Maldives, President Xi Jinping announced the establishment of a comprehensive friendly and cooperative partnership between China and the Maldives, and he launched FTA negotiations with Sri Lanka and inaugurated the Colombo Port City project during his visit to the country. These efforts have given a strong boost to the building of the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road.

In relations with other major countries, solid progress has been made in building a new model of major-country relationship with the United States. President Barack Obama paid a successful visit to China. Following their Sunnylands meeting last year, the two presidents had in-depth evening discussions at Yingtai in Zhongnanhai Compound, Beijing. The visit deepened mutual understanding and led to major progress in a wide range of areas, including climate response, reciprocal visa arrangement and confidence-building measures between the two militaries.

China-Russia strategic partnership of coordination has maintained high standard performance. For the second year, President Xi Jinping chose Russia as the first destination of his overseas trip. President Putin visited China twice within a year, and the two presidents met five times in 2014. Breakthrough has been made in a number of major collaborative projects, thus tightening the bond of common interests between the two countries.

New progress has been made in China-EU cooperation. President Xi Jinping paid a historic visit to Europe to forge partnerships of peace, growth and reform between different civilizations, lifting China-EU relations to a new height. Premier Li Keqiang visited Europe three times in the year, moving China-EU pragmatic cooperation in the direction of innovative cooperation. His meeting with leaders of Central and Eastern European countries broke new ground in introducing China-made equipment, high-speed rail equipment and technology in particular, to the European continent.

Solidarity and cooperation among BRICS countries have been deepened. President Xi Jinping paid state visits to India and Brazil, and hosted the visit to China by South Africa's president. China and India agreed to make their strategic and cooperative partnership more development-focused, and breakthroughs were made in China-India pragmatic cooperation. China and Brazil decided to enhance their comprehensive strategic partnership and explored the feasibility of building a railway running across South America from the Pacific Coast to the Atlantic Coast.

With respect to Africa, following President Xi Jinping's first African tour last year when he proposed the four-point principle of sincerity, real results, affinity and good faith for China's relations with Africa, Premier Li Keqiang visited Africa this year and raised such important initiatives as seven major cooperation projects and three major transport networks amid fresh progress in bilateral cooperation concerning railway, mining and agriculture projects which further enriched the new type of strategic partnership between the two sides.

With respect to Latin America, President Xi Jinping met with leaders of Latin American and Caribbean countries for the first time in the history of China-Latin America relations. The two sides declared the launching of a comprehensive cooperative partnership of equality, mutual benefit and common development and created the China-CELAC Forum as a new platform for elevating relations between the two sides, thus extending China's collective cooperation mechanism to include all developing countries.

With respect to the Middle East, we have elevated our relations with Egypt and Algeria to the level of comprehensive strategic partnership, hosted the sixth Ministerial Conference of the China-Arab Cooperation Forum and put forth initiatives for China-Arab joint efforts to build the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road and create a new "1+2+3" cooperation pattern, which were responded favorably in Arab countries.

With respect to the South Pacific, President Xi Jinping visited Australia and New Zealand and upgraded China-Australia and China-New Zealand relations to the level of comprehensive strategic partnership. He established strategic partnerships of mutual respect and common development with Pacific island countries and advanced China's overall cooperation with the South Pacific island countries having diplomatic ties with China.

Taking the past two years as a whole, China's diplomacy, facing a new situation and new demands, has got off to a fruitful start, with its agenda unfolding across the board and its global network of partnerships basically taking shape.