China an indispensable part of international cooperation

Yves Leterme (Photo courtesy of the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance)

Mankind's experience of combating COVID-19 in the past more than two years once again proves that no country is able to cope with global challenges alone, and to enhance international cooperation is the only way out.

Chinese President Xi Jinping has reiterated on multiple occasions the necessity and urgency to strengthen multilateral cooperation. As a supporter and promoter of multilateralism, China is playing a more and more important role in the global arena. It is an indispensable part of international cooperation especially when protectionism and unilateralism are rearing their heads.

At present, international cooperation needs to be further restructured, and each party should seek to jointly establish a fairer, more inclusive and more efficient global governance system. The vision of building a community with a shared future for mankind proposed by China will help establish such a governance system.

China has played a vital role in promoting global recovery relying on its huge economy and important position in the global industrial chain.

China's fast economic recovery was a result of the adequate and effective measures taken by the Chinese government to fight the disease. Besides, the country has also shared its successful experience in pandemic control with other countries and actively provided COVID-19 vaccines to the rest of the world, in a bid to help the international community tide over difficulties.

Over the past a few decades, China has achieved remarkable progress in its economic and social development. To maintain continuous opening up is an important experience for China's success. The current reform measures rolled out by the Chinese government indicate that China will keep pursuing a path of opening up.

A China-Europe freight train carrying electronic components and auto parts departs from Zhengzhou, central China's Henan province, July 25, 2021. The train, exiting China from a port in Erenhot, north China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region, headed for Liège, Belgium. (People's Daily Online/Wang Wei)

I'm very optimistic about China's future development. The country has completed its poverty alleviation task as scheduled. I believe its next development goal will be met successfully, too.

China is building a new development paradigm with domestic circulation as the mainstay and domestic and international circulations reinforcing each other. This marks an important innovation in economic development made by the Chinese government based on China's conditions and the international situation. China has entered a new stage of development, and the building of the new development paradigm comes right on time.

China will gradually strengthen its internal impetus to economic development and improve its trade structure and development quality by raising the proportion of high technologies and high-quality products and services in its total supply.

Over the recent years, China has been filing an increasingly larger number of patent applications, which explains that the economic development of the country is turning more and more technology-intensive.

Eurasia possesses an important position in global economy. The European Union (EU) and China are the most important economies at the two ends of the Eurasian continent. To enhance cooperation between the two sides bears important significance for solving global challenges.

In recent years, the EU and China have maintained stable trade growth and constantly expanded the scope of economic and trade cooperation, with green economy, healthcare and technology becoming new areas of growth.

Sarah Rose G from Belgium is vaccinated in Hefei, east China's Anhui province, becoming one of the first batch of expats in the province to receive a shot, May 12, 2021. (People's Daily Online/Yu Junjie)

It conforms to the interests of both sides to safeguard multilateralism and the international trade order and prevent EU-China trade from being impeded by external environment.

The EU-Asia Connectivity Strategy and the Belt and Road Initiative have provided important platforms where countries on the Eurasian continent can enhance cooperation, and the China-Europe freight trains have offered a significant channel to enhance East-West exchanges and improve the efficiency of cross-border logistics. The EU and China should believe that their common interests are bigger than their differences.

The Eurasian continent now sees a pressing need for a new security framework. The Global Security Initiative proposed by President Xi is quite creative and constructive. It helps build new regional security frameworks and solve geopolitical crises.

As a matter of fact, China has already gained rich experiences in regional and global security governance. For instance, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization has set a good example in safeguarding regional stability, promoting trade and cultural exchanges and providing humanitarian aid. The international society should keep enhancing communication and cooperation, and make the world peaceful again through dialogues.

 (Yves Leterme is a former Prime Minister of Belgium.)