Chinese FM to attend meetings on East Asia cooperation

A series of meetings of foreign ministers on East Asia cooperation will be held via video from Wednesday to Saturday, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said here on Tuesday, announcing that State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi will attend relevant meetings on Wednesday.

Wang was invited by Pham Binh Minh, deputy prime minister and foreign minister of Vietnam, which holds the rotating presidency of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), spokesperson Zhao Lijian said in a press release.

Noting that the China-ASEAN partnership is the most dynamic and rich in content between ASEAN and other partners, Zhao said China-ASEAN relations have entered a new stage of all-round development with the joint efforts of both sides.

"Since the outbreak of COVID-19 this year, we have joined hands in fighting the pandemic, stabilizing the economy and protecting livelihoods, which has further enriched the China-ASEAN strategic partnership. In the first half of the year, China-ASEAN trade and investment cooperation have registered new progress, and ASEAN became China's biggest trading partner for the first time, demonstrating the huge potential and strong resilience of bilateral cooperation," he said.

China will use the 30th anniversary of the China-ASEAN dialogue relations next year as an opportunity to better plan and advance practical cooperation in various fields and push bilateral relations to a new level, the spokesperson added.

As the epidemic continues to ravage the world and the region, countries are faced with two major challenges in preventing and controlling the epidemic and restoring their economies, Zhao said, adding that China hopes the series of meetings of foreign ministers on East Asia cooperation will further consolidate the region's achievements in the fight against the epidemic, promote economic recovery, inject new impetus into stability and development in East Asia and accumulate rich outcomes for the East Asian leaders' meetings on cooperation at the end of this year.