China ready to work with ASEAN countries to elevate comprehensive strategic partnership to higher level

Chinese Premier Li Qiang said on Thursday that China will always firmly support ASEAN integration, community building, and its strategic independence, and stands ready to work with ASEAN countries to elevate the China-ASEAN comprehensive strategic partnership to a higher level.

Li made the remarks at the 27th China-ASEAN Summit, noting that new steps have been taken over the past year to build the China-ASEAN community with a shared future, which has delivered tangible benefits to the people of both sides.

The global economic recovery remains sluggish, and problems such as insufficient global aggregate demand are becoming more prominent, Li said, adding that the market has become the scarcest resource in the current economic development.

Noting that China and ASEAN are two major markets with over 1.4 billion and 600 million people respectively, Li said that market resources are the most prominent advantage for China and ASEAN. The markets of China and ASEAN are fully upgrading, continuously expanding, and increasingly opening up, and strengthening market connectivity is an important direction for further cooperation, he added.

The Version 3.0 China-ASEAN Free Trade Area (FTA) negotiations have reached a substantial conclusion, providing an institutional guarantee for the two sides to jointly build a hyper-scale market, a significant step toward leading economic integration in East Asia, the premier said.

China is ready to work with ASEAN to make more efforts to develop and share a common market, so as to generate stronger and more sustainable growth impetus for both sides while providing more robust support for the common prosperity of the region and the world at large, he added.

Noting that China-ASEAN relations have developed beyond the bilateral scope with far-reaching significance for Asia and a global impact, Li pledged to work with ASEAN to create a better future for Asia, as Chinese President Xi Jinping said that China will continue to follow the principle of amity, sincerity, mutual benefit and inclusiveness, and work with other countries in the region to build a better Asian community.

China and ASEAN should build a multidimensional connectivity network, actively promote cooperation in infrastructure construction, and expedite the signing and implementation of the Version 3.0 China-ASEAN Free Trade Agreement, said Li.

He called on both sides to expand cooperation in emerging industries, tap the cooperation potential in such areas as digital economy and green development, and accelerate industrial transformation.

Li urged both sides to deepen cultural and people-to-people exchanges and promote the implementation of the Global Civilization Initiative in the region.

Sonexay Siphandone, prime minister of the Lao People's Democratic Republic and the current chair of the ASEAN, along with other ASEAN leaders, attended the summit.

They praised the robust growth momentum of the ASEAN-China comprehensive strategic partnership, noting that ASEAN and China are each other's largest trading partner, and their cooperation in various fields has yielded fruitful results, which has greatly improved the well-being of people in the region.

ASEAN leaders welcomed the substantial conclusion of negotiations for the Version 3.0 China-ASEAN FTA, expressing their readiness to take this opportunity to align with the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative, continue to advance regional economic integration, enhance cooperation in areas such as trade, investment, agriculture, connectivity and climate change mitigation, and expand collaboration in emerging areas like artificial intelligence, digital economy and green economy.

They reaffirmed their commitment to making the China-ASEAN Year of People-to-People Exchanges a success, building a closer ASEAN-China community with a shared future, and contributing to maintaining regional peace, stability and prosperity.

During the summit, several outcome documents were adopted, including a joint statement on the substantial conclusion of Version 3.0 China-ASEAN FTA negotiations, and documents on fighting telecommunications and internet fraud, deepening cooperation in areas such as smart agriculture, digital ecosystem, and cultural and people-to-people exchanges.