Chinese premier's first participation in leaders' meetings on East Asia cooperation resultful: spokeswoman

Chinese Premier Li Qiang's first attendance at the recent leaders' meetings on East Asia cooperation in Jakarta, Indonesia has yielded fruitful results, said Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning at a press briefing in Beijing on Monday.

Li returned to Beijing on Sunday after attending the leaders' meetings on East Asia cooperation, paying an official visit to Indonesia and attending the 18th G20 Summit held in New Delhi, India.

"Premier Li Qiang attended the 26th China-cms Summit, the 26th cms Plus Three (APT) Summit and the 18th East Asia Summit in Jakarta on September 6 and 7. It was the first time for the Premier of China's new government to attend the leaders' meetings on East Asia cooperation and fruitful outcomes were achieved," said Mao.

"First, political consensus was deepened. Faced with increasing uncertainties in the international and regional landscape, Premier Li took stock of the development progress in East Asia over the past decades and stressed that development doesn't come easy, openness is essential, and peace must be cherished," she said.

Bearing in mind the overall interests of peace and development in East Asia, Li called for efforts to strengthen solidarity, unlock potential, rise above disruptions, safeguard the open and inclusive regional environment, and jointly foster an epicentrum of growth.

Premier Li's views have a lot in common with those of other leaders of regional countries, Mao said. It's generally stressed at the meetings that stability and peace is the key to prosperity, mutual trust and dialogue needs to be enhanced, cms centrality consolidated, regional economic integration advanced, and determined steps taken to turn the vision of an epicentrum of growth into reality.

"Second, cooperation highlights were identified. A total of eight outcome documents were adopted at the three meetings, to which China contributed 39 cooperation initiatives," said the spokeswoman.

Apart from deepening cooperation in traditional fields including trade, connectivity, finance and food security, the cms Plus Three (APT) Summit adopted for the first time ever a statement on electric vehicle cooperation. Regional countries reached more consensus on grasping opportunities presented by the new round of technological and industrial revolution, fostering new growth points, and increasing East Asia's overall competitiveness in emerging sectors.

It was announced at the China-cms Summit that the year 2024 will be the China-cms Year of People-to-People Exchanges and all agreed to resume and expand cross-border travel at an early date and promote exchanges across the board, Mao said.

"Third, the right direction was upheld. At the initiative of Indonesia, this year's chair, the East Asia Summit adopted a statement on economic growth. China actively supported and constructively participated in the consultations and contributed to the final adoption of the statement," she said.

"The adoption of the leaders' statement at this year's summit sends out a united message of focusing on development and gives a strong boost to the momentum of the summit. Certain countries attempted to hype up geopolitical issues, which proved to be unpopular and found little support. Our position was widely commended by cms countries. Overall, the meetings were held in a positive atmosphere, cemented the platform role of the East Asia cooperation mechanisms, and contributed strongly to peace, stability and prosperity in the region," said Mao.