Ministry of Foreign Affairs Holds the 9th "Lanting Forum"
2014/05/08
On May 8, 2014, the 9th "Lanting Forum" under the theme of "CICA: Important Platform for Dialogue, Mutual Trust and Collaboration in Asia" was held in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Over 200 people were present, including Vice Foreign Minister Cheng Guoping, foreign diplomatic envoys to China, representatives of international organizations to China, representatives from commercial circles, relevant experts and scholars, Chinese and foreign media journalists and others. The Forum was hosted by Public Diplomacy Office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, co-hosted by China Public Diplomacy Association (CPDA), and chaired by Vice President of CPDA Ma Zhengang and Honorary Chairman of China Foundation for International Studies (CFIS) Zhang Deguang.
In his keynote speech, Cheng Guoping said that China will hold the 4th Summit of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA) in Shanghai from May 20 to 21, during which China will take over the presidency of CICA from 2014 to 2016. Since its establishment in 1992, CICA has constantly developed and expanded, growing into one of the few important cross-civilizations and cross-region platforms for the discussion of regional security and cooperation issues in Asia. CICA complies with the common aspiration of the Asian people for peace and tranquility, promotes Asian countries' development process of mutual benefit and win-win results, and represents special path of diversified development in Asia. This is the major reason that CICA has made numerous development achievements. As an important multilateral platform for the discussion of security issues in Asia, CICA enjoys such features as broad representation, increasingly improved internal mechanism, and prominent leading role played by Asian countries, and therefore it has great development potential.
Cheng Guoping pointed out that currently, Asia is assuming rare and sound development momentum, and in the meantime, it is still facing a range of difficulties and challenges on the way ahead. It has become an urgent task for Asian countries to safeguard peace, jointly strengthen security and promote development. Asian countries should enhance the concept of Asia, improve Asian responsibility and advocate the Asian way.
Cheng Guoping stressed that China, as a founding member state of CICA, attaches great importance to participating in CICA cooperation and is actively committed to promoting the development of CICA. Constructive participation of the Chinese side has made due contribution to promoting CICA cooperation and facilitating solidarity and mutual trust among Asian countries. The Chinese side is going all out for the preparatory work of the 4th Summit, striving to make this summit a united, harmonious and peaceful event. This Summit will be the largest one in the history of CICA, with representatives from over 40 countries and international organizations gathering in Shanghai and a number of participating foreign leaders taking the opportunity of this Summit to visit China. President Xi Jinping will preside at the Summit and deliver a keynote speech, and will hold bilateral meetings with some of the participating foreign leaders.
Cheng Guoping said that hosting the CICA Summit is an important step for the Chinese side to participate actively in CICA's process and to maintain security in Asia. After taking over the baton of presidency of CICA, the Chinese side will conscientiously fulfill the duties of presidency, effectively advance the confidence building measures of CICA in five areas, improve the level of mechanism construction of CICA, and facilitate CICA's greater role in maintaining regional security of Asia and expanding regional cooperation. The Chinese side will make efforts in the following aspects: first, expanding political mutual trust and settling disputes in a peaceful manner; second, promoting common development and cooperating to ensure safety; third, advocating multilateralism and improving safeguard mechanism; four, insisting on seeking common ground while shelving differences and respecting diverse civilizations.
Cheng Guoping said that China, as a member of the big Asian family and a responsible major country in the region, will take the presidency of CICA as a valuable opportunity to advance the development of CICA and to promote regional security and stability. Together with other countries, the Chinese side will shoulder the important mission of maintaining regional prosperity and stability and make contributions to the peaceful development in Asia.
Chairman of CFIS Liu Guchang, Vice President of China Institute of Contemporary International Relations (CICIR) Li Shaoxian, Deputy Director of China Institute of International Studies (CIIS) Dong Manyuan, Secretary-General of Center for Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Study of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) Sun Zhuangzhi, and Director of Asia-Pacific Studies of CFIS Qi Jianguo, respectively made presentations on specific topics from the angles of the mechanism of CICA, the security situation of Asia, CICA's cooperation with SCO, the "three evil forces" and Asian security concept, and made exchanges and interactions with the guests.
