Your Excellency Bob Hawke, the most senior
participant at this forum, Distinguished guests,
Ladies and gentlemen, dear friends,
Good evening!
Autumn is the best season in Beijing with
red tree leaves and clear blue skies. At such a time, the 7th Xiangshan Forum
has been convened as scheduled. First of all, on behalf of China Association of
Military Science and China Institute for International Strategic Studies, I’d
like to extend our warm welcome to all the distinguished guests, and our
heartfelt thanks to Gen. Zulkifeli, Chief of Malaysian Armed Forces, for his
attending this forum in person and delivering a keynote speech.
Since its establishment in 2006, with the
joint efforts and strong support of all parties concerned, Xiangshan Forum has
been successfully held for six times, and has been upgraded from Track 2 to
Track 1.5. Now, the notability and influence of Xiangshan Forum are steadily
rising. Upholding the spirit of equality, respect, openness and inclusiveness,
Xiangshan Forum has been committed to further increasing mutual trust,
dispelling misgivings, building consensus and expanding cooperation, has
gradually become an important Asian-Pacific high-end platform for security and
defense dialogues, and has made a positive contribution to our pursuit of
global peace and development and regional security and stability.
The theme for Xiangshan Forum varies from
year to year, but what remains unchanged is that we cherish and long for world
peace and security and we explore and pursue the development of human
civilization. This year’s theme is “Enhance Security Dialogue and Cooperation;
Build A New Model of International Relations” and the topics for discussion
cover not only the maintenance of Asian-Pacific security and stability but also
such important issues regarding world security and development as the
perfecting of global governance, and the deepening of international fight
against terrorism, and they not only conform to the world developmental trend
and seek to meet the common expectations of people of all countries, but also
satisfy the international community’s urgent demand to work together to build a
new type of international relations taking win-win cooperation as the core.
These topics show that we pay more and more attention to the future of the
world and have more and more humanistic concern. If we have any other good
topic for discussion, please don’t hesitate to bring them forward. So, let’s
voice our views freely, conduct dialogues on an equal footing, and have
in-depth exchanges.
Today, defense department delegations of 59
countries and six international organization delegations and more than 400
famous politicians, experts and scholars gather together at the foot of Xiangshan
Hill to discuss security cooperation, and explore new ways to maintain peace.
As the host of this forum, we feel very much honored and will do our best to
create good conditions for the forum and provide high-quality service and
support.
One month ago, China successfully hosted
the Hangzhou G-20 Summit, which incorporated China’s proposal of building a
community of shared future for mankind and adopted the Hangzhou Consensus based
on vision, integration, openness and inclusiveness. President Xi Jinping pointed
it out in his keynote speech that we can work together to build a peaceful and
stable international environment, and should adhere to multilateralism, settle
disagreements and disputes through dialogue and consultation; that we can work
together to build a global partnership for win-win cooperation and need to step
up communication and coordination on major global issues; and that we can work
together to improve global economic governance and construct a new landscape of
global economic governance, which should embrace openness, be driven by
cooperation, and be a mechanism of sharing. These are the guidance for and the
implication of this year’s forum as well.
I sincerely hope that, during this forum,
all of us can enhance mutual understanding through communication, promote unity
through inclusiveness, discuss differences through mutual trust, resolve
contradictions through cooperation, and gather strength through mutual benefit
and win-win, so as to propel forward the world order in the direction of being
more fair and reasonable and provide more constructive thinking and methods
regarding the world’s peace, stability and prosperity.
Ladies and gentlemen, dear friends,
This year’s forum coincides with the 10th
anniversary of Xiangshan Forum. The past ten years was unstable and volatile,
but it was also a time of fruitful achievements. I am confident that, with the
joint efforts of all of us, this year’s forum will be a sure success, and will
create better conditions for our next forum. I wish all of us good health and
happy stay in Beijing.
Thank you!