The Chinese Ambassador noted that the 30 years of China-ASEAN dialogue relations, which were established in 1991, have been a glorious chapter highlighted by mutual friendship and cooperation. Evolving from a dialogue partnership to a strategic partnership, China and ASEAN are about to embrace a comprehensive strategic partnership that is already the most dynamic, substantive and influential in the entire region.
He wrote that over the past three decades, China and ASEAN have offered each other much-needed support in trying times. The two have worked in concert to tide over one crisis after another, and since the COVID-19 pandemic struck, the two sides have done their utmost to render assistance to each other.
According to him, two-way trade between China and ASEAN grew from 8.36 billion USD in 1991 to 685.28 billion USD in 2020, and it totaled 630.5 billion USD in the first three quarters of this year. Last year, China and ASEAN became each other’s largest trading partner for the first time in history. The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), among other trade arrangements, opens broad, new prospects for China-ASEAN economic and trade engagement. In 2019, 65 million people made mutual visits and nearly 4,500 weekly flights traveled between China and ASEAN countries. Exchange mechanisms have continued to expand in the fields of education, culture, tourism, youth, research and journalism.
About the prospects of bilateral ties in the near future, the ambassador said priority could be given to jointly defeating the pandemic and boosting the regional economy.
He suggested fostering new areas of growth in pursuit of common development, nurturing closer people-to-people ties and safeguarding international justice through solidarity and coordination.
The diplomat expressed his belief that the giant ship of China-ASEAN friendship and cooperation will sail ahead steadily and make greater contributions to peace, stability, development and prosperity of Asia.
