Forum seeks to foster security in Asia-Pacific

The ongoing three-day Beijing Xiangshan Forum, an Asia-Pacific defense and security dialogue, that started on Sunday provides stakeholders to the stability of the region with an opportunity to compare notes.

Delegations of more than 90 countries, regions and international organizations are taking part in the event, including the United States, Saudi Arabia, Iran and Russia, the most since it was launched in 2006. That shows the forum's growing influence as well as the participants' common concerns about the prospects for peace and stability in the region and beyond.

Themed "Common Security, Lasting Peace", the forum this year has caught wide attention as not only is it being held against the backdrop of rising tensions between China and the United States, but more importantly at a time when the Ukraine crisis and the Palestinian question have shown how easily tensions can flare up into conflict.

It is good to see that the US, along with some of its allies, has sent a delegation to the forum, and is taking the opportunity to seek dialogue with the Chinese and other sides. Senior-level military exchanges between China and the US have largely been suspended for about a year due to the US' provocative moves on China's doorstep, sanctions on Chinese entities, and interference in China's internal affairs over the Taiwan question.

Although it is not an official ministerial-level dialogue, the proactive stance the US side has taken to strengthen communication on defense and security with Beijing should be appreciated even if it is well aware that what hinders the military exchanges between them has been the US' own actions.

The topics of the forum, including big countries' responsibilities and global security cooperation, the security framework of the Asia-Pacific, new security framework for the Middle East, the reconstruction of European peace, maritime military crisis prevention and management, and artificial intelligence security, are all pertinent issues for Sino-US military exchanges of views.

It is to be hoped that the US side can take full advantage of the face-to-face discussions with the Chinese side, as well as other parties, particularly Saudi Arabia, Iran and Russia, to strive for a better understanding of the world's concerns over some hotspot issues, as well as its unshirkable responsibilities to work together with the international community to ensure these issues are properly settled.

The US side should know that allowing tensions to continuously escalate and the situation to turn from bad to worse on these fronts does not provide it with chances to exploit, but only harms its interests. As a starter and instigator of so many wars and conflicts over the past decades when it acts waywardly as the sole superpower in the world, the US is in a better position than other countries to know that while it is easy to start a war or conflict, it takes a long time to heal the wounds.

- Li Yang, China Daily