The close economic ties and all-around cooperation between China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) are expect to play a leading role in the East Asia cooperation, officials and experts said.
"China is looking forward to further development and cooperation with other East Asian countries, to further strengthen consensus on jointly responding to risks and challenges while promoting regional prosperity and stability, as well as to rejuvenate deeper regional cooperation," said Xu Bu, China's ambassador to ASEAN in an interview ahead of the 48th ASEAN Foreign Ministers' Meeting and related meetings.
Foreign Ministers and senior officials of the ten ASEAN countries and their dialogue partners including China, United States, Russia, South Korea and Japan are meeting in the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur this week, to discuss global and regional issues and ways to further promote ties.
For ASEAN, 2015 will be a year of milestone as the ten-nation bloc is set to establish an ASEAN Community based on three pillars: political-security community, economic community and socio- cultural community.
The establishment of the ASEAN community, together with China's initiatives including the "One Belt, One Road" and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank is expected to bring the mutual benefit ties to a new height.
Xu said the ASEAN Community will breed fresh opportunity to China and Southeast Asian countries in interconnection as well as trade and investment.
Ding Xueliang, a politics expert at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, told Xinhua that Southeast Asia is an important base for the China-proposed Belt and Road initiative, and the upcoming establishment of the ASEAN Community will benefit both the bloc and its partners including China.
China has put forward a series of important proposals such as building a community of shared destiny with ASEAN countries and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, as well as establishing "an upgraded version" of the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area and the "2+7 (two political consensuses and seven areas of cooperation) cooperation framework," which has drawn positive response from ASEAN countries.
Trade between China and ASEAN recorded a new high in 2014, totaling 480.4 billion U.S. dollars. The two sides are eyeing 1 trillion U.S. dollars in trade by 2020.
Oh Ei Sun, senior fellow with S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore, said Southeast Asian countries welcome China's move to build infrastructure including port, road and airport under the 'One Belt, One Road' initiative.
"Southeast Asian countries look forward to more initiative from China and are willing to accommodate," Oh said.
Despite the territorial disputes between China and some Southeast Asian countries, experts pointed out that cooperation and economic ties remain the focus in China-ASEAN relations.
Ambassador Xu Bu said China will work with ASEAN to build the South China Sea a sea of peace, friendship and cooperation.
