In September, Beijing held a series of events to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the China-ASEAN strategic partnership, and the ASEAN secretary-general and foreign ministers of all ASEAN members attended the activities. In October, in the wake of Xi's Southeast Asia tour to Indonesia and Malaysia, Li will attend the East Asia leaders' meetings and pay official visits to Brunei, Thailand and Vietnam.
Foreign Minister Wang Yi has paid five visits to Southeast Asia. Within just half a year, the new leadership has had face-to-face talks with nearly all ASEAN heads of state.
China has proposed to build a China-ASEAN community of common destiny, discuss with ASEAN members the prospect of concluding a treaty of friendship and cooperation, create an upgraded version of the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area, establish an Asia infrastructure investment bank and build China-ASEAN think-tank networks. These new strategic initiatives, at a crucial time of China-ASEAN relations, will not only greatly promote China-ASEAN mutually beneficial cooperation and common development, but once again lead the overall peace and cooperation process in East Asia.
The proposal to build a China-ASEAN community of common destiny showed China's political commitment and determination to promote good-neighbor friendship and deepen strategic mutual trust with ASEAN. It is not an expedient measure, but a long-term strategy; not an empty slogan, but has real policy implications and action plans.
To build a China-ASEAN community of destiny, China will continue prioritizing ASEAN members in the country's peripheral diplomacy, deepening China-ASEAN strategic partnership and working together with ASEAN to maintain regional peace and stability.
Meanwhile, China will firmly support ASEAN's development and growth, the construction of ASEAN community, and ASEAN's leading role in East Asian cooperation.
Among ASEAN's dialogue partners, China is a latecomer, but China-ASEAN partnership has become the most comprehensive and most substantial relationship.
The experience of China's success is to respect the ASEAN way and carry out pragmatic cooperation. Respecting the ASEAN way is to support ASEAN to play a leading and central role in regional cooperation processes and support ASEAN connectivity and integration.
The ASEAN-led model is the only proven viable way for East Asian integration, and ASEAN connectivity and integration constitute the necessary conditions for a wider range of East Asian integration.
China's rise toward a great power must have roots in East Asia, and its dream of revival will come true only in the process of sharing development fruits and making common progress with regional countries.
Building the China-ASEAN community of common destiny created a major strategic opportunity and opened up bright prospects for the common development of China and ASEAN. The community is not an exclusive alliance, but a necessary condition and an important guarantee for regional peace and prosperity.
The process of East Asian cooperation is open-ended, and the open regionalism is also an important experience that retains vitality in regional processes. It can be said that China-ASEAN relations are the most important relationship concerning the overall political, security arrangements and economic integration in East Asia.
The author is director of East Asian Studies Center at the China Foreign Affairs University.
(China Daily 10/09/2013 page8)
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