Wang Yi: Ancient wisdom can fix today's problems

Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi has suggested looking to ancient civilizations to solve today's problems.

"Culture is the most enduring power," Wang said in New York on Wednesday.

"Exchanges and dialogues among civilizations could calm people down, and help people learn from the long history, learn from the mutual understanding, transcend various disputes and contradictions, find the key to solve today's challenges, and consolidate the humanistic foundation to build a community of shared future," he said.

Wang spoke while presiding over a foreign ministers' meeting in the Ancient Civilizations Forum on Wednesday at United Nations headquarters in New York. He is attending the 74th session of the UN General Assembly.

Foreign ministers from China, Armenia, Bolivia, Egypt, Greece, Iran, Iraq, Italy and Peru joined the meeting.

The parties passed the Joint Press Statement of the Foreign Ministers' Meeting of Ancient Civilizations Forum. They said the forum is an important platform for dialogue and cultural cooperation among member states and underscored the need to enhance dialogue and exchanges among diverse civilizations.

Wang said that as countries with thousands of years of civilizations, "we should enhance our self-confidence in our civilizations, strengthen exchanges and cooperation, and contribute wisdom to solving our own problems and the problems of the modern world".

The foreign ministers exchanged views on strengthening exchanges on culture and civilization and have reached some consensuses.

They said different countries, different nationalities and different civilizations must insist on mutual respect, equality, openness, tolerance and mutual learning, and oppose all forms of xenophobia and discrimination against different civilizations.

They called for strengthening dialogue and exchanges among civilizations to find solutions to modern problems from ancient civilizations.

They firmly support multilateralism, safeguarding hard-won civilization achievements and supporting the international system with the UN at the core, and maintaining an international order based on international law.

The foreign ministers also called for further strengthening the cooperation between the forum and other international institutions and multilateral mechanisms, such as UNESCO, so as to expand the influence and visibility of the forum.

The parties said they appreciated China's presiding over the foreign ministers' meeting and look forward to going to Beijing this October to attend the Third Ministerial Conference of the Civilized Ancient Countries Forum.

The Ancient Civilizations Forum was initiated by China and Greece, which invited countries with original cultural characteristics to participate.

The first forum was in Athens, Greece, in 2017, and the second forum in La Paz, Bolivia, in 2018.

xiaohong@chinadailyusa.com

(China Daily 09/27/2019 page12)