CHINA-ASEAN COMMUNITY WITH SHARED FUTURE
China has always put ASEAN as a priority for its foreign policy with neighboring countries and stood for friendly cooperation with ASEAN.
Calling ASEAN a good neighbor, friend and partner of China, Li reassured that China supported the establishment of the ASEAN Community, ASEAN's central position in regional cooperation and the community's greater role in building an open and inclusive regional framework.
To build a closer community with shared future with ASEAN, China is willing to be a partner of ASEAN for common development, peace-building, opening-up and win-win cooperation, innovation as well as inclusiveness and mutual learning, Li said when addressing a launching ceremony of the 15th Anniversary of China-ASEAN strategic partnership.
He said China would actively implement the "3+X Cooperation Framework" with ASEAN, strengthen the alignment between the Belt and Road Initiative and ASEAN's development strategy, construct the economic development belt along the Lancang-Mekong River Basin and increase cooperation with BIMP-EAGA countries.
The BIMP-EAGA includes Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines. The BIMP-EAGA, or the East ASEAN Growth Area, was launched in 1994 by the four countries to accelerate and balance their economic development.
China is willing to work with the ASEAN countries to maintain positive developments in the South China Sea, resolve differences through friendly consultations, steadily advance the negotiation on the Code of Conduct (COC) in the South China Sea, so as to make it "a sea of peace, friendship and cooperation," said the premier.
ASEAN Secretary General Lim Jock Hoi said that China has always been an important partner of ASEAN.
China's support has strongly promoted the integration of ASEAN, helped ASEAN narrow its internal development gap and deepened the friendship between the peoples of the two sides, Lim said.
CHORUS OF FREE TRADE
During his visit, the premier reaffirmed China's commitment to trade and investment liberalization and facilitation, especially so when economic globalization is encountering the headwinds of rising protectionism and unilateralism.
"Both China and Indonesia believe in globalization and free trade," Li told more than 600 business people at the China-Indonesia business summit. "We both support the rules-based multilateral trading regime and stand for equal consultation in settling trade disputes."
"China does not go after trade surpluses," he said, noting that last year saw Indonesia's deficit with China decrease by 42 percent over the previous year, and bilateral trade achieved overall balance in the first quarter of this year.
China is ready to buy more competitive goods from Indonesia, the premier said.
His announcement of increasing the import of Indonesia's palm oil was followed by applauds from the audience at the summit.
As part of the fruits of Li's visit, both sides have agreed to enhance cooperation on customs, inspection and quarantine, and mutual recognition of QC certification to improve trade facilitation.
The two sides have also agreed to boost cross-border e-commerce to facilitate the cooperation between small and medium-sized enterprises.
Li also pledged to promote free trade with ASEAN, injecting positive energy into the world economy.
He called for joint efforts to make substantive breakthroughs in the negotiations on the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), a free trade agreement (FTA) scheme of the 10 ASEAN member states and its FTA partners, namely China, Australia, India, Japan, the Republic of Korea (ROK) and New Zealand.
This year marks the 40th anniversary of China's reform and opening up. Li stressed China would open up to a higher level and achieve mutual benefits and win-win results to a deeper level."A more prosperous and open China will certainly bring greater opportunities for the development of all countries in the world."
After the trip to Indonesia, Li will leave for Japan on Tuesday to attend the 7th China-Japan-ROK leaders' meeting and pay an official visit to Japan.
