Foreign minister: Diplomacy will focus on shared future

China's endeavor to foster a new form of international relations and build a community with a shared future for mankind will be the overarching goals of China's foreign policy in the years ahead, Foreign Minister Wang Yi said.

Wang stated the goals in his keynote speech at a symposium on Saturday in Beijing about the global situation and China's diplomacy. The symposium, attended by diplomats and researchers, was themed on international developments and China's diplomacy in 2017.

Noting that the 19th CPC National Congress had charted the course for China's external relations, Wang said that China needs to create a more favorable external environment and stronger external impetus to create a moderately prosperous society in all respects. [Special coverage]

"For China's diplomacy in the new era, we will take a longer and broader perspective and be even more open-minded and resourceful," he said.

The foreign minister reiterated that "war is by no means acceptable" in dealing with the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue, stressing that the possibility of negotiation remains.

"China has put in more efforts and borne a greater cost than any other party in addressing the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue," he said, adding that China has implemented UN Security Council resolutions.

While talking about the Middle East, Wang said that China has always firmly supported the Palestinian people's efforts to restore their lawful rights.

"We support the establishment of an independent Palestinian state that enjoys full sovereignty, with East Jerusalem as its capital and based on the 1967 border," he said, adding that the status of Jerusalem must be determined through dialogue and negotiation on the basis of UN resolutions.

Mentioning that President Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump have had three meetings and many letters and phone calls this year, Wang said that the two leaders' sound interactions have provided "a strategic anchor to what is the most complicated and consequential relationship in the world".

"China is willing, on the basis of mutual respect, to live peacefully with the American superpower. The US needs to understand and accept a China that is following its own path of socialism with Chinese characteristics, one suited to its own conditions," he said.

Xi and Russian President Vladimir Putin have met five times throughout the year, and the China-Russia relationship has become a major cornerstone for world peace and stability, fairness and justice, and win-win cooperation, Wang said.

Noting that the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative has become "the most popular international public goods program", Wang said that Chinese businesses have invested over $50 billion and created nearly 200,000 local jobs in countries that are participating.

China will prepare for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Summit to be held in Qingdao, Shandong province, in June and the first China International Import Expo in November in Shanghai, Wang said.

Sun Zhuangzhi, secretary-general of the SCO Research Center affiliated with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told China Daily that the selection of Qingdao as the host city reflects China's advocacy of the Belt and Road Initiative.

Qingdao has both land connections with Europe via railways and maritime connections with other countries, he said, adding that the city plays an important role in developing the initiative.

Zhou Shijian, a senior researcher on China-US trade relations at Tsinghua University in Beijing, said that the Belt and Road Initiative will promote global economic development and balance the north-south gap, which also will contribute to building a community of shared future for mankind.

The International Import Expo will be a good move for the country's diplomacy in 2018 because expanding imports will promote the economic development of China as well as improve relations with other countries, he said.