Forum calls for Asian unity amid geopolitical challenges

Asia is now in urgent need of boosting unity, shelving differences and building consensus when faced with challenges such as geopolitical rivalry, gaps in technologies and power politics, political figures and policy advisers have said.

They made the point at the Conference on Building a Peaceful and Prosperous Asian Community with a Shared Future, a high-level dialogue in Beijing on Tuesday.

The event gathered over 300 delegates from countries in various parts of Asia, including political leaders as well as executives of think tanks, friendship organizations and media.

At the conference's opening, Wang Dongming, vice-chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, voiced his hope that all parties would act on the vision of building a community with a shared future for humanity and implement the four major initiatives — the Global Development Initiative, Global Security Initiative, Global Civilization Initiative, and Global Governance Initiative.

He called on parties to join hands in advancing the building of a community with a shared future for Asia and to jointly write a new chapter of peace, development, cooperation, and prosperity for Asia.

Omar Razzaz, Jordan's former prime minister, raised concerns over challenges posed by cutting-edge technologies, including artificial intelligence, to Asia, which represents about 40 percent of the world's total GDP and 60 percent of the global population.

The younger generation is going through cognitive atrophy because of AI. While manual labor is being replaced by robotics and AI algorithms, economic monopoly by some IT giants based in Western countries may translate into political hegemony, he said.

He quoted President Xi Jinping as saying at the opening ceremony of the 2026 World AI Conference and High-Level Meeting on Global AI Governance in July that "AI development should not be a solo performance by a single country, but a symphony of international cooperation".

"I could not agree more. This is something that each of us needs to be involved in," he said.

Yukio Hatoyama, former Japanese prime minister, warned that armed conflicts persist around the world, and economic sanctions and bloc-based politics have become a weapon in diplomacy.

"What our era requires is not the continuation of an old order based on the strength of nations," he said.

Hatoyama noted that China, as a major country, does not coerce others through force but influences them through virtue, and it builds trust through reciprocity and cooperation.

Tao Jian, a leading Chinese scholar on international relations studies and former president of the University of International Relations in Beijing, underlined the importance of Asian countries joining hands in partnership building and resilience buildup against economic, political and social impacts brought by factors, including bloc confrontation.

"Only when Asian nations fully recognize that they are all sailors on the same ship will they be able to truly join forces and move forward together amid raging storms," he said.

Sodiq Safoyev, first deputy chairman of the Senate of the Oliy Majlis of Uzbekistan, said the region needs not just economic connectivity, but also "identity and a space of shared values".

Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar, former Pakistani prime minister, said Asia "needs security that is common, comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable, where no country seeks security at the expense of another".