Adhere to Dialogues and Cooperation and Uphold Mutual Benefit and Win-win Results
--Foreign Minister Wang Yi Talks about President Xi Jinping's Visit to Finland and Travel to the US for China-US Presidents' in Florida, the US
On April 8, from April 4 to 7, 2017, President Xi Jinping paid a state visit to Finland and travel to Mar-a-Lago in Florida, the US, for the meeting between the Chinese and US presidents. As the trip comes to the end, Foreign Minister Wang Yi briefed journalists on the visits.
Wang Yi said that the current world is undergoing great changes and adjustments unprecedented in a century. In terms of the evolution of the international pattern, the development of domestic and foreign policies of the new US government draw global attention, while the European integration process witnesses new changes. The visit of President Xi Jinping focuses on the two countries, spans Europe and America, attracts worldwide attention and is of great significance. The visit not only achieves complete success and fruitful results, but also adds stability and injects positive influence into the development of the international situation.
1. Carry Forward Traditional Friendship and Elevate China-Finland Relations to New Highs
Wang Yi said that Finland is an important country in Northern Europe and member of the EU. Whether establishing diplomatic relations with China or developing cooperation with China, Finland has walked at the forefront of Western countries. China-Finland relations have withstood the test of times and changing of the international situation and maintained stable and healthy development, making the two countries a model among relations between China and European countries. The visit of President Xi Jinping inherits the past, ushers in the future and promotes the work in all areas by drawing upon the experience gained on key points, which will open up a new historic chapter in China-Finland friendly cooperation and add new and strong impetus into the development of China-Europe relations.
Start a new phase of bilateral relations. The visit, which is President Xi Jinping's first visit to Finland as China's president and the visit since the last Chinese president visited the country 22 years ago, coincides with the 100th anniversary of the independence of Finland. Finland has been expecting this visit for a long time and offers a high-level and grand reception. President Xi Jinping held meetings with President Niinistö, Speaker of the Parliament Lohela and Prime Minister Sipilä of Finland, discussed bilateral relations and its development, made plans for cooperation between China and Finland, and agreed to establish China-Finland relations featuring prospectiveness, strategic significance, and epochal characters. President Xi Jinping stressed that both countries should firmly hold the right direction of the development of China-Finland relations , support each other on the road of self-development, accommodate each other's core interests and major concerns, and be friends and partners who respect each other, treat each other equally and achieve win-win cooperation. Finland applauds this stance. The two countries issued a joint declaration, announcing the official establishment of a future-orientated new-type cooperative partnership, which will elevate China-Finland relations into a new high and serve as a powerful guidance for the development of bilateral relations, making it the core political achievement of this visit.
Draw new prospects for China-Finland friendly cooperation. China and Finland are closely aligned in terms of development concepts and strategies. China is now advancing its 13th Five Year Plan, implementing its development concept featuring innovation, coordination, green, openness and sharing, and Finland puts forward the "Vision: Finland 2025"and have rich experiences in development driven by innovative, green and coordinated development. The leaders of two countries are willing to strengthen the docking of development plans and create new cooperation highlights in aspects such as technology innovation, clean energy, energy conservation and environmental protection, and scientific research in the Arctic. Finland is a founding member of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and is willing to actively take part in the construction of the "Belt and Road" initiative and jointly promote the interconnection between Asia and Europe with China. The two countries signed a series of cooperation documents on innovation of enterprises, investment, trade, judiciary, science, technology, inspection and quarantine, which shows that China-Finland cooperation has entered into an all-round development track and the traditional friendship between the two countries are bearing fruits.
China and Finland share many similarities in diplomatic concepts, and we are staunchly support multilateralism, economic globalization and free trade. President Xi Jinping exchanged in-depth views on issues such as global governance, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and climate change with the Finnish leaders. The leaders of the two countries agreed to strengthen communication and coordination on international and regional affairs, promote world peace and stability, construct a more open world economy, drive the global governance system towards a more fair and rational direction. This is the common voice of the two countries on current global issues and it shows the rich connotation of China-Finland partnership.
Establish new bridges for people-to-people and cultural exchanges. China-Finland friendship has a deep historic root and a solid public opinion basis. During his state visit this time, President Xi Jinping told stories of the China-Finland friendship, quoted proverbs familiar to the two peoples and praised the Finnish SISU spirit, namely, perseverance and courage. President Xi Jinping's efforts narrowed the distance between the two peoples. President Xi Jinping's wife Mme. Peng Liyuan visited old residences and museums of Finnish musicians, making unique contributions to China-Finland people-to-people and cultural exchanges. The two leaders and their wives had friendly communication with winter sports athletes from China and Finland, who presented them with their respective national team clothes as gifts as a sign of China-Finland friendship. Both sides decided to set the year of 2019 as China-Finland Winter Sports Year and agreed to take the Beijing 2022Winter Olympic Games as an opportunity to strengthen their cooperation in winter sports and preparations for Beijing Winter Olympic Games. China and Finland agreed on enhancement of bilateral cooperation in culture, education and tourism. China is prepared to build up a Chinese Cultural Center in Helsinki. Both sides have also planned to conduct collaborative research on giant pandas to make them envoys of China-Finland friendship. President Sauli Niinisto said it would be the best gift Finland has ever received on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of its independence.
Stimulate new momentum for China-Europe relationship. This visit is not only President Xi Jinping's first visit to EU countries this year, but also the first visit to Northern Europe as China's president. This visit fully shows the important role of China-Europe relationship in China's foreign affairs and arouses greater enthusiasm from Northern Europe and European countries to develop their relationships with China. China and Finland are willing to strengthen communication and coordination and promote China-Nordic cooperation, which will contribute to the overall development of China-Europe relationship. Faced with current European situation, President Xi Jinping reiterated that China will firmly support the process of European integration and stressed that China will foster China-Europe four major partnerships of peace, growth, reform and civilization, and that China will make the hosting of the 19th China-EU summit a success this year so as to inject new impetus into the development of China-Europe relationship. European media and people from all walks of life believed that President Xi Jinping's visit to Europe signals China's confidence in the prospects of European development and heralds closer cooperation with Europe.
2. Strengthen high-level strategic communication and guide China-US relationship in a stable and promising direction
Wang Yi said that China and the US are two major countries with global influences. The importance of bilateral relationship is self-evident. To keep a sustainable, healthy and stable relationship is in the fundamental interests of the people in both countries and meets global expectation. Since the new US administration took office 2 months ago, President Xi Jinping has made a number of calls and exchanged messages with President Donald Trump. Both countries have been keeping close communication at different levels. Therefore, the meeting of the two leaders comes at a natural time. President Donald Trump sincerely welcomed President Xi Jinping to attend the meeting held at Mar-a-Lago, known as Winter White House. President Xi Jinping and his wife Mme. Peng Liyuan were received by President Donald Trump's family of three generations. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson of the US also went to the airport to personally welcome President Xi Jinping. All of these fully showed that the US attached great importance to this meeting. Over the past day, leaders of both countries have held many meetings in which they had in-depth exchanges of views on China-US relationship and international and regional issues of common concern, reaching many important consensus. Both sides believed that the meeting is rooted positively and has made many important achievements.
Strengthen mutual understand and trust of the two heads of state. President Xi Jinping and President Donald Trump shared governance theory and introduced to each other their respective ongoing priority agendas, which deepens mutual understanding and establishes good working relationship. President Xi Jinping introduced Chinese history, condition and the achievements from reform and opening-up to President Donald Trump. He noted that China firmly follows the peaceful development path and rejects the theory of I-win-you-lose and the old way of power leading to hegemony. Instead, China devotes itself into promoting global peace, stability and prosperity. Donald Trump said that China owns great and amazing civilization. President Xi Jinping led China to make many achievements, which wins respects of the world. He had a pleasant time with President Xi Jinping and established extraordinary friendship. He is willing to continually cooperate with President Xi Jinping. President Donald Trump accepted President Xi Jinping's invitation for a state visit to China later this year. Both leaders have agreed to keep close contacts through meetings, calls and letters. The deeper the two leaders communicate with each other, the bigger role they could play in guiding China-US relations, increasing the relationship's compatibility and tenacity, and boosting the world's positive expectations for their development.
Confirm the development direction and principles of China-US relations. Both leaders highly applauded the historic progress of China-US relations and agreed to promote greater development on a new starting point so as to bring more benefits to people of both countries and the whole world. President Xi Jinping reiterated that cooperation is the only right choice for China and the US and that both countries are capable of becoming good partners. He pointed that we have a thousand reasons to make China-US relations a success and no reason to make bilateral relations a failure. Both sides should focus on the fruits of cooperation and make a checklist of key cooperation areas so as to generate more early harvests. President Xi Jinping stressed that it is natural for China and the US to have divergences and the key is to properly deal with sensitive issues and control divergences constructively. President Xi Jinping's proposals are full of global views, long perspectives and political wisdom, which win positive response from the US. Both sides agreed to expand mutually beneficial cooperation fields through joint efforts and control divergences on the basis of mutual respects. President Donald Trump noted that the US stands ready to cooperate with China to eliminate those factors and problems affecting bilateral relations, which will realize greater development of US-China relations. Bilateral relations will certainly be better.
Lay out priority fields and mechanisms of bilateral cooperation. China and the US agreed to promote healthy development of two-way investment and trade as well as advance two-way investment agreement negotiations. They also agreed to explore practical cooperation in many fields including energy and infrastructure. China explained the essence of bilateral mutually beneficial and win-win investment and trade. China reiterated that China does not seek trade surplus on purpose, and hoped that the US can ease its restrictions on Chinese exports so as to further balance bilateral trade. Mutual trust in military and security is the foundation of China-US strategic mutual trust. Both sides stand ready to strengthen communication on bilateral militaries and will make full use of the upcoming platform of joint staff dialogue mechanism. Both sides are willing to deepen cooperation in many fields as law enforcement, legislation and cyber security. If people of both countries enjoy closer relationship, both countries can have a much better relationship. Both sides are willing to expand people-to-people and cultural exchanges so as to enhance the foundation of bilateral relations. During the technical stop on his way back to China, President Xi Jinping also met with Governor Bill Walker of Alaska, encouraging the promotion of China-US regional cooperation.
The two heads of state have announced the establishment of four high-level dialogue mechanisms including diplomatic and security dialogue, comprehensive economic dialogue, law enforcement and cyber security dialogue, and social and people-to-people and cultural dialogue. These four high-level dialogue mechanisms are an important achievement from the Mar-a-Lago meeting. During the meeting, the two sides initiate diplomatic and security dialogue and comprehensive economic dialogue, conducting in-depth exchanges, clearing working agenda and the direction of efforts. The two heads of state are satisfied with the launching and initial success of these important mechanisms. The regular dialogue and cooperation mechanisms between China and the US are important pillars of the bilateral relations. They will play an important and positive role in advancing communication, enhancing mutual trust, expanding cooperation and controlling differences between the two sides.
Strengthen communication and coordination on international and regional affairs. China and the US are both the permanent members of the UN Security Council. As the world's top two economies, both countries shoulder a special and important responsibility to safeguard world peace and stability and promote global development and prosperity. During the meeting, the two heads of state exchanged in-depth views on international and regional issues of common concern such as the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue and agreed to expand cooperation at regional and global level to contribute to the maintenance of regional and world peace, stability and prosperity. President Xi Jinping pointed out that China and the US should and could cooperate in many areas with regard to both global and regional affairs. Strengthening bilateral communication and cooperation is not only in the interests of our two countries, but also beneficial to the world. President Donald Trump said that, as two major world powers with tremendous responsibilities, the US and China need to maintain communication and coordination on important issues to do great things. The sound interaction between China and the US on international and regional affairs received positive responses from the international community.
Wang Yi said that the meeting of the two heads of state is very important, timely and effective, which has achieved the original goal of enhancing mutual understanding, establishing mutual trust and reaching common consensus. This meeting not only achieved a smooth transition of China-US relations, but also served as a good start for bilateral relations in the new era. Exchanges between major powers not only feature cooperation but also have disagreements. In terms of China-US relations, the economic complementarity between the two sides is far greater than the competition, and the need for cooperation is far greater than the differences. The important value and historic significance of this meeting was that the two sides have charted the course for bilateral relations from the highest level, and set up a framework and made the top design for the future of China-US relations. We have every reason to believe that this meeting will play an important role in overcoming difficulties, eliminating interferences and moving forward on the right track for bilateral relations. At the same time, it will also have a significant impact on promoting peace, stability and prosperity in the Asia-Pacific and the world at large.
3. Introduce China's Development Philosophy and Interpret Ways of Getting along with Different Countries.
Wang Yi said that, during the visit, President Xi Jinping introduced China's development concepts to all foreign countries, stressing that China will adhere to the open strategy of mutual benefit and win-win results, and will always be a contributor to global development. China is willing to combine organically its own development with the development of other countries to build a community of shared destiny for all mankind. President Xi Jinping pointed out that China has the confidence and ability to maintain sustained and healthy economic development and create more opportunities and bring more benefits to the rest of the world. President Xi Jinping's introduction showcased the self-confidence, openness and inclusiveness of China, making all parties more optimistic about China's development and looking forward to China's opportunities.
During the communication with foreign parties, President Xi Jinping is good at finding the convergence point of common interests, the resonance point of the policy concepts and the integrating point of complementary cooperation to advocate mutual respect, seek common ground while reserving differences and reach mutual benefit and win-win results. President Xi Jinping pointed out that each country has its own basic national conditions, history and culture, development stages, and each country and its people have the right to choose its own social system and development path. The development path is only right when it is in line with one's own reality. The only way to get along with each other permanently is through mutual respect and inclusiveness. These expressions not only reflect the Chinese leaders' confidence, but also contain the philosophy of harmony in diversity, thus receiving understanding and recognition of foreign leaders.
Wang Yi said that these visits are President Xi Jinping's first visits after the closing of the two sessions this year, and it's also a major diplomatic action to co-ordinate the overall situation at home and abroad before the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC). We must earnestly study and understand the important diplomatic thoughts implied by these visits. Under the leadership of the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping as the core, we will continue to hold high the banner of peace, development, cooperation and win-win results, constantly elevate the major-country diplomacy with Chinese characteristics to new highs, and create a stable and favorable external environment for the convening of the 19th CPC National Congress, so as to make greater contributions to realizing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation and advancing the cause of world peace and development.
