Secondly, China’s military will continue to hold regional security dialogues in order to promote security cooperation. We have always striven for candid and in-depth dialogue with our peers in order to maximize Asia-Pacific defense and security cooperation. Currently, China has defense and security dialogue mechanisms with 26 countries. In recent years, China has held more than 80 joint counter-terrorism and disaster relief military exercises with more than 50 countries. The Chinese defense department and military have actively participated in multilateral security cooperation in the region, and played an important role in many multilateral arrangements such as the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the ASEAN Regional Forum and ASEAN Defense Ministers Meeting. The Xiangshan Forum is an example of the Chinese military’s promotion of security dialogue and cooperation.
Thirdly, the Chinese military actively provides public security solutions in order to achieve comprehensive security. Security challenges are interconnected and have transnational complications. Demand for public security solutions is rising worldwide. Since 2002, the Chinese military has completed 39 international emergency humanitarian aid missions, providing more than 1.3 billion yuan in relief supplies to 30 disaster-hit nations. Since late 2008, the Chinese military has dispatched 18 task forces to escort shipping in the Gulf of Aden and waters off Somalia, providing escort services to almost 6,000 Chinese and foreign ships. Of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, China has dispatched the most peacekeeping forces, with more than 27,000 personnel deployed on such missions so far. Currently, 2,027 Chinese personnel are deployed on peacekeeping duties in nine UN task regions. To address the Ebola crisis in West Africa, the Chinese military has sent almost 300 doctors and nurses to regions hit by the disease. It has built an observation center for Ebola patients in Sierra Leone. It also plans to build a medical center set with 100 hospital beds to contribute to the fight against the epidemic.
Fourthly, the Chinese military will deepen pragmatic defense cooperation to ensure sustainable security. The military is the pillar of a country’s security. National security and the power to sustain security to a large extent depend on military capacity. The Chinese armed forces are providing assistance within their power to other countries, especially developing countries, in military building. The assistance is focused on the long-term development needs of the recipient countries’ armed forces and enhancing their capabilities to safeguard national security. Since 2003, we have trained more than 30,000 military personnel from more than 130 countries. We also provide military materials and goods to assist some developing countries. We never attach political strings to our assistance. A large part of the assistance has been used for infrastructure construction such as military academies and hospitals.
The prospect for Asia-Pacific security cooperation is rosy, but safeguarding regional security is a heavy and long-term task that demands concerted efforts from all nations. May I raise three proposals on how we can together safeguard Asia-Pacific peace, stability and sustained prosperity?
We propose enhancing dispute management and strengthening our capabilities to resolve crises. We call for dialogue and exchanges in settling disputes by respecting Asia-Pacific stability, historical facts and international law. All relevant countries should build an efficient management and control mechanism to address crises and prevent disputes from escalating. The Chinese military is willing to exchange information with concerned parties through various contact mechanisms to handle disputes in a proper manner.
We propose pushing forward defense exchanges and cooperation and increasing mutual strategic trust. All countries should encourage their defense departments and armed forces in regular exchanges with other nations, build stable negotiation mechanisms for defense security, and deepen bilateral and multilateral exchanges to reach greater consensus in order to strengthen mutual strategic trust. We are willing to boost the healthy development of Asia-Pacific military ties through enhancing pragmatic cooperation at various levels with our partners.
We also propose further consolidating regional security construction by raising awareness of our shared destiny. We call on all sides to ditch the Cold War mindset, and take into account each country’s security concerns and comfort zones by respecting reality, so that we can expect to build an open, transparent, fair and inclusive Asia-Pacific security structure.
President Xi Jinping said during the APEC Beijing meeting that those who have similar ideals and beliefs are friends, and so too are those who seek common ground while reserving differences. He said it is easier to live when one has more friends. So let us all work to build an Asia-Pacific partnership based on mutual trust, inclusiveness, cooperation and mutual benefit. Let us unite and carry out sincere cooperation for a better tomorrow in the Asia-Pacific region.
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