Chinese President Xi Jinping said on Thursday that the Asia-Pacific cannot and should not be an arena for geopolitical rivalry and called for unity to achieve better regional cooperation.
Xi made the remarks in a written message titled "Meeting challenges with unity of purpose to write a new chapter for Asia-Pacific" and delivered to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) CEO Summit in the US city of San Francisco.
In the written speech, Xi pointed out that three decades ago, Asia-Pacific leaders followed the trend toward peace and development, and convened the inaugural APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting, enabling Asia-Pacific development and economic globalization to embark on a fast track of growth, turning the region into a powerhouse for world economic growth and an anchor of stability for global development.
"Over the past three decades, we have stayed committed to open regionalism, opening-up and inclusiveness, learned from each other's strengths, exchanged needs, focused on development and jointly developed 'the APEC Approach' based on the principles of voluntarism, consensus-building and incremental progress, capitalizing on the spirit of partnership featuring harmony without uniformity, and solidarity and mutual assistance," Xi said, adding that there is so much we can draw from this remarkable journey of Asia-Pacific cooperation.
Noting the Asia-Pacific cannot and should not be an arena for geopolitical rivalry, still less should it be plunged into a new Cold War or camp-based confrontation, Xi said the absence of cooperation is the biggest risk, and that decoupling and supply-chain disruption are not in anyone's interest.
We should remain committed to open regionalism, and steadfastly advance the building of a Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific, said the Chinese President.
China will continue to improve the mechanisms for protecting the rights and interests of foreign investors, further shorten the negative list on foreign investment, fully ensure national treatment for foreign investors, and continue to strengthen intellectual property rights protection, Xi added.
Xi also called for an open, fair, just and non-discriminatory environment for the development of science and technology.
We should jointly improve the global governance of science and technology, bolster support for green and digital transition and sustainable development through innovation, he added.
Noting that the immutable goal of Chinese modernisation is to deliver a better life to the whole of more than 1.4 billion Chinese people, Xi said this means a broader market and unprecedented cooperation opportunities for the world, and it will also instil strong impetus in the global modernization endeavour.
(With input from Xinhua)
* This article was originally pubished by CGTN.