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<\/p>\nBy Wan Yu, Source: People’s Daily<\/p>\n
On March 7, a press conference was held on the margins of the fifth Session of the 13th National People\u2019s Congress (NPC) at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, during which Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi answered questions from Chinese and foreign media about China\u2019s foreign policy and external relations.<\/p>\n
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Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi<\/em><\/p>\n For the world, the year ahead continues to be full of challenges, Wang said, adding that at such a critical moment, countries need solidarity, not division;\u2002dialogue, not confrontation.<\/p>\n He said as a responsible major country, China will continue to hold high the banner of multilateralism, work with all peace-loving and development-seeking countries to strengthen solidarity and cooperation, jointly meet challenges, and continue to promote the building of a community with a shared future for mankind. Together, they will strive for a brighter and better future for the world, Wang noted.<\/p>\n The minister introduced the progress of the Belt and Road cooperation at the press conference. He said despite the impact of the pandemic and other factors, Belt and Road cooperation has maintained a\u2002sound momentum.<\/p>\n According to him, the physical connectivity of infrastructure made solid progress under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) last year. Major projects such as the China-Laos railway\u2002and the new Haifa port in Israel were completed. The construction and operation of projects in relation to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, the Piraeus port,\u2002the Jakarta-Bandung high-speed rail and the Budapest-Belgrade railway advanced steadily. The China-Europe Railway Express reached new records in the number of freight services and the amount of cargo transportation,\u2002providing a strong boost to economic recovery in relevant countries.<\/p>\n The institutional connectivity of rules and standards yielded fruitful results, he noted. Since\u2002the start of the last year, 10 more countries have signed Belt and Road cooperation documents with China, extending the BRI family to 180 members. A successful Asia and Pacific High-level Conference on Belt and Road Cooperation was held, and the initiatives for Belt and Road partnership on vaccine cooperation and green development have both received wide support.<\/p>\n The people-to-people connectivity featuring mutual help and assistance continued to deepen, Wang said. China has given strong support to other countries in their fight against COVID-19, and is working on joint vaccine production with 20 developing country partners, most of which\u2002are BRI partner countries. A large number of\u2002\u201csmall yet smart\u201d assistance programs\u2002have been steadily carried out to help people in partner countries improve income and livelihood.<\/p>\n These facts aptly show that Belt and Road cooperation is moving forward with more partners, stronger foundation\u2002and brighter prospects, Wang said, and it is sure to bring new\u2002development\u2002opportunities\u2002to the\u2002post-COVID\u2002world.<\/p>\n Wang also briefed the press on the implementation of the Global Development Initiative (GDI). He said COVID-19\u2002has\u2002had a serious impact on\u2002the global development process, and developing countries, in particular, are taking\u2002the brunt. It is against this backdrop\u2002that Chinese\u2002President Xi Jinping proposed\u2002the GDI\u2002at the UN, calling\u2002on all countries to focus on\u2002development, pool their efforts and meet challenges\u2002together, he noted.<\/p>\n The minister said that the centerpiece of the GDI is to put people front and center. Its primary goal is to facilitate the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Highly responsive\u2002to the needs of various parties, the GDI has soon been warmly received and supported by the UN and nearly 100 countries.<\/p>\n He introduced that in January this year, representatives from over\u2002100 countries and more than 20 international organizations attended the launch\u2002of the Group of\u2002Friends of the GDI\u2002at the UN headquarters in New York, building greater\u2002international consensus on implementing\u2002the GDI.<\/p>\n Wang said China believes\u2002that good development is\u2002sustainable and true development is development\u2002for all. He told the press conference that China will work with all parties in four areas to implement\u2002the GDI step by step.<\/p>\n First, China will forge\u2002synergy in\u2002priority areas. It will\u2002focus on the most pressing concerns of\u2002developing countries and advance practical cooperation in such\u2002areas as poverty reduction, food security, economic recovery, employment\u2002training, education, health and green development, so that\u2002all 17 Sustainable Development Goals will be met by 2030 as scheduled.<\/p>\n Second, China will respond to\u2002the needs of all countries. It will follow\u2002the spirit of open and inclusive partnership and the principle of extensive consultation, joint contribution and shared benefits.\u2002It welcomes the participation of all parties in flexible ways in light of their\u2002needs and strengths.<\/p>\n Third, China will partner\u2002with cooperation\u2002mechanisms. It will work with all interested international and regional\u2002organizations\u2002and especially\u2002the UN system to seek complementarity with the development processes of small island developing states, landlocked developing countries,\u2002and least developed countries. This way, the country could give play to\u2002the respective strengths\u2002of various parties\u2002and forge\u2002a global synergy.<\/p>\n Fourth, China will reach out to partners of all sectors. It values the role of the private sector, NGOs, experts, think tanks\u2002and the media in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda, and welcomes the recommendation and participation of all parties.<\/p>\n In short, the GDI is another major initiative proposed by President Xi after\u2002the BRI, Wang said, calling it another clarion call to mobilize\u2002global development cooperation,\u2002and another endorsement of\u2002putting people front and center as a core concept of human rights.<\/p>\n The GDI has drawn up a road\u2002map for narrowing the North-South gap and addressing development imbalance, and\u2002given\u2002a boost to\u2002the 2030 Agenda, he said.<\/p>\n China will work with\u2002all countries to pursue and follow through on the GDI,\u2002ensuring that\u2002no country or individual is left behind and no aspiration\u2002is overlooked, and to jointly build a global community of development, he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Wan Yu, Source: People’s Daily...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-45886","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-china"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45886","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=45886"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45886\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45887,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45886\/revisions\/45887"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=45886"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=45886"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=45886"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}