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China committed to peaceful development

China is committed to pursuing peaceful development and will continue following the foreign policy of “building good neighbourly relationships and partnerships with surrounding countries”, said President Xi Jinping yesterday. He made this point at a meeting with Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, who is on a week-long visit to China.

China is committed to pursuing peaceful development and will continue following the foreign policy of “building good neighbourly relationships and partnerships with surrounding countries”, said President Xi Jinping yesterday. He made this point at a meeting with Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, who is on a week-long visit to China.

Speaking to reporters after talks with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, Mr Lee said China played a very important role in ASEAN’s overall context of cooperation with many countries in the world and in developing an open region. He added that the Chinese are “keen to review and improve” the ASEAN-China Free Trade Agreement, which came into effect three years ago.

Noting that the South China Sea dispute is one of the issues that remain unresolved between several ASEAN members and China, Mr Lee said ASEAN “has an interest in this because it’s happening in ASEAN’s neighbourhood and we can’t not have a view on an issue which has major security implications for our members”.

He stressed that Singapore has maintained the position that the issue should be managed peacefully and in accordance with international law, urging all countries to “exercise moderation and restraint and maintain a peaceful and not-tense environment in South-east Asia”.

Mr Lee also commented on the United States’ strategy to rebalance towards the Asia-Pacific — a position Singapore supported. “We’ve always taken a view that Americans have a constructive role in Asia. We believe that the Americans have been here, and underpinned the security and peace and in the region, really since World War II,” he said.

“And we hope that when they talk about the rebalancing, this is something for the long term and quietly building up year by year across a broad tract — not just security, but also economic, cultural and even political ties over a long period of time.”

Teo Xuanwei

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