Shouldering Responsibility and Working Together in Solidarity To Build an Asia-Pacific Community with a Shared Future

Shouldering Responsibility and Working Together in Solidarity
To Build an Asia-Pacific Community with a Shared Future

2022-11-18 13:56

Remarks by H.E. Xi Jinping
President of the People's Republic of China
At the 29th APEC Economic Leaders'Meeting

Bangkok, 18 November 2022

Your Excellency Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha,
Colleagues,

It gives me great pleasure to join you in Bangkok, the beautiful City of Angels. This is our first face-to-face meeting since the onset of COVID-19. I wish to extend our hearty appreciation to the government of Thailand, and Prime Minister Prayut in particular, for putting this meeting together.

At present, the COVID-19 pandemic still drags on with cases surging here and there. Global recovery is facing multiple challenges. Unilateralism and protectionism are on the rise. Global industrial and supply chains are under stress. Problems such as inflation and food and energy security remain intricate and challenging.

The Asia-Pacific is our home as well as the powerhouse of global economic growth. Over the past decades, robust economic cooperation in the region has created the "Asia-Pacific miracle" admired across the world. Asia-Pacific cooperation has taken deep roots in the hearts of the people.

Today the world has come to another historical crossroads, and this has made the Asia-Pacific region even more important and prominent in its standing and role.

As an ancient Chinese sage observed, "The wise are free from doubts, the benevolent from anxiety, and the brave from fear." Facing the new circumstances, we must join hands together to build an Asia-Pacific community with a shared future and take Asia-Pacific cooperation to a new height. To this end, I wish to propose the following.

First, we should uphold international fairness and justice and build an Asia-Pacific of peace and stability. The region owes decades of its rapid growth to a peaceful and stable environment. This attests to the critical importance of mutual respect, solidarity and cooperation, and consultation among all parties for the greatest denominator when something comes up. We should always assume the vision of common, comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable security, and respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all countries. No one should interfere in other countries' internal affairs, and everyone should respect the development path and social system chosen independently by the people of each country. We should take seriously the legitimate security concerns of every country, and promote peaceful settlement of differences and disputes among countries through dialogue and consultation. We should take an active part in global governance and make the international order more just and reasonable to ensure peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific region and beyond.

Second, we should stay committed to openness and inclusiveness and bring about prosperity for all in the Asia-Pacific. History has proven time and again that only openness, inclusiveness and win-win cooperation is the right way forward for humanity. We need to continue pursuing open regionalism, strengthen coordination on macroeconomic policies, forge more closely linked regional supply and industrial chains, promote trade and investment liberalization and facilitation, and steadily advance regional economic integration for the early realization of a high-standard Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific. We need to make sure that development is for the people and by the people, and that its fruits are shared among the people, and we should promote prosperity for all in the Asia-Pacific. China will work with other parties on the full and high-quality implementation of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), and continue working toward joining the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) and the Digital Economy Partnership Agreement (DEPA), for the purpose of promoting integrated development of the region. China will consider holding the third Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation next year to provide fresh impetus for the development and prosperity of the Asia-Pacific and the world.

Third, we should always strive for green and low-carbon development and ensure a clean and beautiful Asia-Pacific. Protecting the ecological environment and tackling climate change is a common challenge facing all humanity. We need to enhance economic and technical cooperation, speed up coordinated digital and green development, advance the transition and upgrading of energy, resources, and industrial and consumption structures, and promote green economic and social development. This year we jointly formulated the Bangkok Goals on Bio-Circular-Green (BCG) Economy, which aims to advance ecological and environmental protection and economic development in a coordinated way. China will provide support for its implementation. Last year at the United Nations, I proposed the Global Development Initiative (GDI), calling for enhanced practical cooperation in poverty reduction, food, energy, health and other areas, and urging expedited implementation of the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. I welcome Asia-Pacific countries to take an active part in the Initiative.

Fourth, we should bear in mind our shared future and make the Asia-Pacific a region where all are ready to help each other. We need to view Asia-Pacific cooperation from a strategic and long-term perspective, uphold APEC's role as the main channel in regional cooperation, and keep Asia-Pacific cooperation in the right direction. We need to act on the purposes and principles of APEC, and continually deepen the Asia-Pacific partnership featuring mutual trust, inclusiveness and mutually beneficial cooperation. We need to follow the spirit of our Asia-Pacific family, look after one another like passengers in the same boat, and steadily move toward an Asia-Pacific community with a shared future.

Colleagues,

Last month, the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China was held successfully, setting the course and providing the blueprint for China's development for now and the years to come. China is ready to pursue peaceful coexistence and common development with all countries on the basis of mutual respect, equality and mutual benefit. We will advance a broader agenda of opening up across more areas and in greater depth, follow the Chinese path to modernization, put in place new systems for a higher-standard open economy, and continue to share our development opportunities with the world, particularly with the Asia-Pacific region.

As a Thai proverb goes, "You reap what you sow." We have jointly sown the seed of the Putrajaya Vision. It is time for us to cultivate, nurture, and foster the blossoming flower of common development of the Asia-Pacific!

Thank you.