New think tank set to promote world peace

Beijing launched a think tank on Thursday to focus on the 2-year-old Global Security Initiative, and it outlined plans to pool strengths for making peace, boosting the unity of nations, and rejecting bloc confrontation.

At the launching ceremony for the Center for GSI Studies, the organizer, the China Institute of International Studies, issued the first "Report on the Implementation Progress of the GSI", which takes stock of the outcomes that have been achieved so far.

President Xi Jinping proposed the GSI, a key vision that advocates the spirit of solidarity, win-win thinking, and political settlement of hot spot security issues, in April 2022.

Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Beijing established the Center for GSI Studies to better strengthen research, facilitate the implementation of the GSI, and provide more contributions from the think tank to promote world peace and security.

In a written message to the launching ceremony, he asked the center to adequately gather the wisdom and pool the strength of Chinese and foreign experts and scholars to "build a platform for exchanges and dialogues on international security issues, and provide strong support for all parties to carry out exchanges and cooperation under the framework of the GSI".

More than 100 countries and international and regional organizations have expressed their support and appreciation for the GSI.

At the launch ceremony, Pakistani Ambassador to China Khalil Hashmi hailed China's role in effectively promoting peace for hot spot issues, noting that the GSI has gone beyond "theoretical concepts" and led to practical moves.

Observers said the GSI, as a Chinese solution, has seen its value constantly increasing in solving security problems and maintaining global stability.

Behind that is the increasingly complex international security situation, such as the prolonged Ukraine crisis and the conflict in Gaza, as well as challenges on issues including cybersecurity and climate change, they added.

"As shown by the prospering GSI, China's constructive input into global security is systematic, and its policy structure and resources are being perfected in a multidimensional way," said Wang Yiwei, a professor at Renmin University of China's School of International Studies and director of the university's Institute of International Affairs.

China has effectively honored its role as a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, such as by working with Brazil to issue a joint proposal earlier this year for resolving the Ukraine crisis, Wang said.

Furthermore, "behind China's successful push for the reconciliation between Saudi Arabia and Iran is the ancient Chinese wisdom that could help seek balance and resolve conflicts that have frustrated Western countries", he said.

So far, the GSI and its core ideas have been written into more than 90 bilateral or multilateral documents between China and other countries and international organizations.

Analysts said the results achieved by the GSI are due to a commitment to rejecting confrontation between camps, refraining from choosing sides, transcending ideological boundaries, and pursuing pragmatism and efficacy.

Chen Xulong, a professor of multilateral diplomacy and UN reform studies at the University of International Business and Economics, said, "The international community is in desperate need of consolidating consensus on shaping common security."

Currently, the international security situation is worsening, and this highlights the need for the GSI, he said.

"China is playing its dutiful role as a major country, and the initiative has focused on pooling consensus and shoring up solidarity," he added.

Looking to the GSI's future, China said on Thursday that it will keep strengthening international security exchanges and cooperation to inject more stability into a volatile world.

Vice-Foreign Minister Chen Xiaodong said that China is willing to strengthen communication and exchange of security concepts and policies with various parties, promote international security cooperation, and "promote sustainable development for sustainable security".

China is willing to fully tap the role of multilateral mechanisms such as BRICS and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, and make good use of existing discussion and dialogue platforms such as the Xiangshan Forum, to strengthen communication and coordination in the area of security, he said.

He highlighted the need to "carry out more practical actions" on the GSI's 20 priority directions for cooperation, including the role of the UN, nonproliferation, information security, biosecurity, artificial intelligence, and combating transnational crime.