China calls for new security concept to ensure lasting peace in Asia

Myanmar President U Thein Sein (R) meets with visiting Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Nay Pyi Taw, Myanmar, Aug. 11, 2014. (Xinhua/U Aung)

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi called for a security concept for the 21st century so as to ensure the long-lasting peace and security of Asia.

Addressing the 21st ASEAN Regional Forum(ARF) that ended here on Sunday, Wang Yi noted Asia has maintained peace, stability and relatively fast development over recent years. He attributed this to the joint commitment by Asian countries to improving economy and people's well-being, their active efforts to engage in and promote regional cooperation as well as the sound interactions between major countries in the region, which help create a generally stable regional environment.

He reiterated China's view for a common, comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable security concept of Asia, and willingness to blaze a new trail of security that is upheld and shared by all and brings benefits to all.

He said that the proposed new security concept, which has won recognition and support from other Asian countries, is in conformity with the historical trend of Asian countries forging a community of common destiny and meets the urgent needs of all parties for cooperation to tackle security challenges.

It also served to pool the wisdom and consensus of all countries, and opened up a new and broad prospect for security cooperation in Asia.

Wang Yi said that the Asian security concept calls for consultation and dialogue rather than threat of force, openness and inclusiveness rather than mutual repulsion, win-win cooperation rather than zero-sum game.

"All parties should deepen security dialogue and promote common security. In disputes over territorial sovereignty and maritime rights and interests, parties concerned should seek for peaceful resolutions through negotiation and consultation based on international law, norms governing international relations and historical facts," he said.

The Six-Party Talks should be resumed at an early date, in a bid to push forward denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and safeguard peace and stability there. Extensive and inclusive national reconciliation in Afghanistan should be pursued so as to promote peaceful reconstruction and development there, he noted.

He called for efforts to enhance non-traditional security cooperation and promote comprehensive security and urged all parties to actively participate in the ASEAN Regional Forum Disaster Relief Exercise 2015(ARF DiREx 2015), which will be jointly held by China and Malaysia in February, 2015.

He said major countries should enhance sound interactions and highlight cooperative security. Major countries should be objective and reasonable when judging each other's strategic intentions and stick to the principle of non-conflict, non- confrontation, mutual respect and win-win cooperation, he added.

"China is committed to enhancing China-Russia comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination, building the new model of major-country relationship between China and the US and deepening China-India strategic cooperative partnership," he said.

All parties should explore ways to set up a new security architecture so as to ensure sustainable security. Efforts should be made to change the situation where security cooperation in Asia has long been unable to catch up with economic cooperation, and set up a security architecture tailored to the region that can live up to requirements of all sides.

Various kinds of mechanisms can work side by side, while different forces can each play their own roles, he said, highlighting that ASEAN's centrality should be upheld and mechanisms such as the ASEAN Regional Forum and the enlarged session of the ASEAN Defense Ministers' Meeting should make more contributions to regional security.

"We should stay open and inclusive, stick to multilateralism, discard the outdated thinking of power politics and military deterrence, take one step at a time and run security cooperation in parallel with economic cooperation so that they can reinforce each other," the foreign minister said.

Wang Yi noted that the ARF should give priority to trust in the future, put confidence-building measures at its core, build up consensus through preventive diplomacy, be result-oriented, deepen cooperation in non-traditional security fields such as disaster relief, counter-terrorism, campaign against cross-border crimes, maritime security and cyber security, be open-minded and keep pace with the times so as to enhance the efficacy and vitality of the ARF.