China to enhance beneficial co-op with ASEAN
NANNING, China, Oct. 31 – China is fully prepared to enhance mutually beneficial cooperation with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), and will strive to become ASEAN members’ permanent good neighbor, good friend and good partner, the Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said on Monday.
On the sidelines of the commemorative summit marking the 15th anniversary of China-ASEAN Dialogue Relations, Wen met separately with leaders from the Philippines, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia and Cambodia. The leaders recalled the development of China-ASEAN relations in such fields as politics, economy and trade, culture, and security, and pledged to enhance their friendly relations to a higher level.
China and the Philippines have selected agriculture, infrastructure construction and mineral resources exploitation as the top priorities for bilateral cooperation. China hopes that all the cooperation agreements in these fields will be fully implemented at an early date, Wen said while meeting with Philippine President Gloria Arroyo.
Singapore is China’s biggest trading partner among the 10 ASEAN members, and the two countries have carried out fruitful cooperation in recent years, Wen told Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.
Wen hoped that the China-Singapore cooperation project in the Suzhou Industrial Park would be further pushed forward, and that Singapore would take an active part in the economic cooperation in China’s coastal and inland areas.
Meeting with Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, Wen proposed four priority areas to strengthen the friendly bilateral relationship.
The four areas include: to improve exchanges of high-level visits and increase political mutual trust, to launch a feasibility study on a closer economic partnership aimed at pushing forward the bilateral economic and trade cooperation comprehensively, to strengthen energy cooperation, and to reinforce joint efforts to combat transnational crimes.
Describing economic and trade cooperation the pillar for the development of China-Indonesia relations, Wen agreed with Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono that the two sides should work together to expand the two-way trade and mutual investment, and make more efforts to facilitate cooperation in the tourism industry.
Wen also told Cambodia’s Prime Minister Hun Sen that China would take more measures to contribute to Cambodia’s sustainable growth and to achieve win-win outcomes.
With closer economic and trade bonds, China will continue to help with ASEAN countries in their infrastructure construction, encourage Chinese enterprises to invest in the ASEAN market, and join ASEAN countries’ local economic development efforts, the Chinese premier told ASEAN leaders.
On the joint exploitation between China, the Philippines and Vietnam in the South China Sea, Wen said that the cooperation had yielded some results. He stressed that the three countries should strive to push for substantial progress in the future.
The joint exploitation is conducive to maintaining peace and stability in the South China Sea, and significant to enhancing mutual trust and cooperation between the three countries, Wen said, urging the three sides to hold consultations over the joint exploitation for the next phase so as to achieve substantial outcomes.
The ASEAN leaders agreed that their countries’ relations with China had gained momentum, and were willing to cooperate closely with China to achieve substantial development.
They said the China-ASEAN commemorative summit was an important event that would surely usher a new era in the development of the relationship between the two sides.