Harnessing Strengths of CICA Cooperation and Building an Asian Community with a Shared Future

Harnessing Strengths of CICA Cooperation and
Building an Asian Community with a Shared Future

2021/10/12

Remarks by H.E. Wang Yi
State Councilor and Foreign Minister of
The People's Republic of China
At the Sixth CICA Ministerial Meeting

12 October 2021

Distinguished Colleagues,

It is a great pleasure to attend the sixth CICA Ministerial Meeting. I would like to thank President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev for his attention to and support for the CICA process. My appreciation also goes to Kazakh colleagues for the thoughtful arrangements. Since assuming the chairmanship, Kazakhstan has done a great deal to advance CICA's development and promote mutual trust and cooperation in Asia. China highly commends this.

In the past 29 years since its establishment, CICA has stayed abreast with the times, expanded cooperation on confidence-building measures (CBM), and played an indispensable role in fostering an Asia featuring mutual respect and mutual trust, security and stability, progress and prosperity, openness and inclusiveness, and cooperation and innovation.

As an important member of CICA, China has always been a participant in and facilitator for CICA's development. President Xi Jinping personally attended CICA summits. He proposed a vision of common, comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable security, and called for exploring a security and development path that suits Asia and serves the common interests of all, and making joint efforts to build an Asian community with a shared future. His proposals have found positive resonance from all sides.

Looking ahead, China is ready to fulfill its responsibility as the coordinator in relevant areas of CICA cooperation, and continue to hold the CICA Non-Governmental Forum, the Finance Summit, the Think Tank Forum and other events, so as to make new and greater contributions to CICA cooperation.

Colleagues,

In the face of the pandemic and major changes unseen in a century, CICA, as the most representative cross-civilizational and cross-regional forum for multilateral security cooperation in this part of the world, should keep up with the times, harness cooperation advantages, expand cooperation practices, and contribute wisdom and strengths to the building of an Asian community with a shared future. With that in mind, China would like to make four proposals.

First, we need to continue deepening cooperation on COVID response. Given the uncertainties of the pandemic, the pressing priority at the moment is to strengthen vaccine cooperation and protect the health and security of people. With an enduring commitment to building a global community of health for all, China maintains that vaccines should be a global public good. Despite its own difficulties, China has provided altogether over 1.4 billion doses of vaccines and concentrates to the international community, making it the Number-One contributor of vaccines to the rest of the world. China has also announced that it will contribute an additional 100 million doses to developing countries on top of its US$100 million donation to COVAX.

We call on all sides to jointly carry forward the spirit of science, continue to oppose politicization, using origins-tracing as a tool, and COVID stigmatization, and take real actions to strengthen global cooperation against the pandemic.

Second, we need to join hands in maintaining security and stability. Recently, security risks in the region have become quite prominent, with new dynamics in hotspot issues and new developments of terrorism. All sides need to take robust measures to guard against all this. It is important that we act in line with the spirit of CICA cooperation, namely, equality, mutual respect, consultation for consensus, and non-interference in domestic affairs. We need to continue to settle differences through dialogue and resolve disputes through negotiations. We need to properly tackle traditional and non-traditional security threats and challenges, with a view to promoting long-term stability and security in the region.

Although the war in Afghanistan has ended, the after effect of military intervention and "democratic transformation" by the West is far from over. Afghanistan in the future needs to move ahead toward inclusiveness and openness, toward a firm commitment against terrorism, and toward good-neighborliness. Regional countries and the international community should also work with Afghanistan in the same direction and create favorable conditions for its reconstruction and development. As Afghanistan's neighbor, China is ready to work with all sides and enable a stable transition in Afghanistan.

The trilateral security partnership, or AUKUS, put together by the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia, and its plan for cooperation on nuclear-powered submarines, will be harmful to the region in many ways, including creating risks of nuclear proliferation, triggering a new round of arms race, jeopardizing regional peace and stability, undermining the development of a Southeast Asia Nuclear Weapon-Free Zone, and causing a resurgence of the Cold War mentality. The international community, especially Asian countries, has been following this very closely and with vigilance. We should see clearly the nature of AUKUS and U.S. Indo-Pacific strategy, and jointly oppose any attempt that goes against the common will of countries in the region and imperils regional peace and stability.

Third, we need to actively promote economic recovery. Right now, all countries face the formidable tasks of fighting COVID-19, stabilizing the economy and securing people's well-being. At the General Debate of the 76th Session of the UN General Assembly, President Xi Jinping solemnly proposed the Global Development Initiative to implement the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development at a faster pace, and work together for more robust, greener and more balanced global development. We look forward to active support and participation of all countries.

Asia is the world's highland of development and enjoys broad development prospects. We need to steadily advance high-quality Belt and Road cooperation, strengthen cooperation in such areas as connectivity, digital economy and green economy, and help achieve full economic recovery in the region. China will bring out the strengths of the massive Chinese market, and provide Asian countries with more opportunities and stronger drivers for post-COVID recovery.

Fourth, we need to firmly practice multilateralism. In the face of the difficulties and challenges that keep emerging, the international community should stay committed to multilateralism, and uphold equity and justice now more than ever. We should reject Cold War mentality and zero-sum games, and oppose all attempts that seek to undermine the international order under the pretext of so-called "rules". We need to resolutely uphold the UN-centered international system, and vigorously advocate peace, development, equity, justice, democracy and freedom, which are the common values of humanity. We need to jointly oppose unilateralism, hegemony and power politics, uphold true multilateralism, stand on the right side of history and the side of human progress, and make even greater contributions to upholding equity, justice, peace and security in the world.

China supports CICA's continued commitment to the principles of openness and inclusiveness. We welcome Turkmenistan as an observer. The continued expansion of the CICA partnership network represents the growth of force for progress in the international community, and will inject positive energy into the process toward greater democracy in international relations.

Colleagues,

Asia is where we survive and thrive. It is a continent full of promises. Let us put our minds together and pool our strengths with a unity of purpose, keep deepening and substantiating the CICA process in the post-COVID era, jointly promote regional development and stability, and build together an Asian community with a shared future.

Thank you.