Toward more inclusive, effective diplomacy

Good relations with neighbors form basis for efforts to realize a sound environment for prosperity

President Xi Jinping's speech on the necessity of good diplomacy to realize a sound regional environment provides an important compass for the country to navigate the trend of the times and consolidate its friendly relations with neighboring countries.

The speech, delivered at a conference on diplomatic work held in Beijing on Oct 24 and 25, embodied a vibrant new vision for China's diplomacy with its neighbors and reaffirmed establishing friendships and partnerships with neighboring countries is the strategic choice of the country's new leadership.

Xi stressed that good regional diplomacy is essential for the country to achieve national rejuvenation and the realization of the "centenary goals" set by the 18th CPC National Congress in November last year: a moderately prosperous society by 2020 and a prosperous, strong, democratic, culturally advanced, harmonious and modern socialist country by 2049.

He emphasized the strategic importance of building good-neighborly relations to the country's overall development strategy and said previous generations of leaders had already laid the foundation for regional stability. He stressed that the basic tenet of China's diplomacy with its neighbors is to treat them as friends and partners, to make them feel safe and to help them develop.

"We must strive to make our neighbors more friendly in politics, economically more closely tied to us, and we must have deeper security cooperation and closer people-to-people ties," he said.

It is beyond doubt that the vision he presented of a Pacific region big enough for all countries to develop together and his call for greater regional cooperation and integration will have a positive influence on the region and hasten the establishment of a Silk Road Economic Belt and a maritime Silk Road for the 21st century.

China's economic and trade links with its neighbors have never before been so interconnected, and the number of people-to-people exchanges between China and its neighbors is unprecedented; but the region is brimming with further vitality and opportunities for development that require greater cooperation. Therefore, the more active diplomatic blueprint to consolidate friendship that Xi presented is a win-win strategy for China and its neighbors.

In fact, promoting good-neighborliness, deepening friendship and forging new areas of cooperation with neighboring countries have been an important hallmark of China's new leadership, and both Xi and Premier Li Keqiang have been earnestly practising what they advocate.

Last month, the heads of three neighboring governments - India, Mongolia and Russia - were in Beijing, again highlighting the fact that the new leadership's blueprint for the country's diplomacy is focused on neighboring countries.

And in October alone Xi attended the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Bali, Indonesia, and paid state visits to Indonesia and Malaysia, while Li visited Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei on Oct 9 to attend the East Asia leaders' meetings and paid official visits to Brunei, Thailand and Vietnam.

The regional focus of the new leadership was already noticeable in September when Xi visited Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan in Central Asia and attended the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in Bishkek, capital of Kyrgyzstan. In the same month, Li received regional leaders attending the 10th China-ASEAN Expo held in Nanning, Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region.

Such intensive diplomacy with countries in China's vicinity is helping to identify convergence points for cooperation and forge a close network of common interests. As Xi emphasized in his speech, China and its neighbors are a community with a shared destiny, and only through better integration of China's interests with those of its neighbors' can they benefit from China's development and China benefit from theirs.

Admittedly, China's bilateral ties with its neighbors are at different levels. Some are just like our brothers who support and help each other unselfishly; some are our old friends with cordial ties and deepening cooperation; some have comparatively limited cooperation with China while a few have disagreements or even problems with China in one way or another.

But as Xi said, the constant principle of China's diplomacy with its neighbors is friendship.

What Xi and Li have been demonstrating since they took office is the country's sincerity in its efforts to build stronger mutually beneficial friendships with countries in the region and to overcome any differences in order to build a harmonious environment for common prosperity.

The author is a senior writer with China Daily. Contact the writer at wanghui@chinadaily.com.cn.

(China Daily Africa Weekly 11/01/2013 page11)