Daily Times

Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi Tuesday said that China was ready to build partnerships with the Islamic world for the promotion of multilateralism and democracy in international relations as well as for unity and cooperation.

“China is ready to build four partnerships with Islamic countries. We should be partners of unity and cooperation… We need to be partners in development and revitalization… We need to be safe and stable partners,” Wang Yi said in his address as a special guest at the opening ceremony of the 48th session of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation’s Council of Foreign Ministers here.

This is the first time for the Chinese foreign minister to attend the OIC Foreign Ministers’ Meeting, which he said, fully demonstrated the sincere desire of China and the Islamic world to strengthen exchanges and cooperation and would surely push bilateral relations to a new level. He said China was ready to work with Islamic countries to promote a multipolar world, democracy in international relations and diversity of human civilizations, and make unremitting efforts to build a community with a shared future for mankind.

Wang Yi said China would continue to support Islamic countries in applying Islamic wisdom to solve contemporary hotspot issues and firmly hold in our own hands the key to maintaining stability and promoting peace. He told the gathering of foreign ministers from across the Muslim world that China would continue to stand firmly on the side of the Palestinian people and support the early convening of a more authoritative and representative international peace conference on the basis of the two-state solution to promote a comprehensive and just settlement of the issue.

He said China would respect the choice made by the Afghan people, support Afghanistan in achieving inclusive government and steady governance.

“On the Kashmir issue, we have once again heard the call of many Islamic friends. China shares the same aspiration,” he remarked.

Moreover, he said China supported Russia and Ukraine in continuing peace talks for the sake of a ceasefire, an end to war, and peace. “We need to prevent humanitarian disasters and prevent the spillover of the Ukrainian crisis from affecting or harming the legitimate rights and interests of other regions and countries,” the Chinese foreign minister remarked.

He said China would continue to provide 300 million doses of vaccines to Islamic countries to help them build a defense of health. With high-quality belt and Road cooperation and joint implementation of global development initiatives as the twin engines, China would lead the trend of South-South cooperation. He said over the years, China and the Muslim world had always respected and trusted each other and supported each other’s core concerns.

“We will never forget that Algeria and other countries jointly submitted a resolution, and nearly 30 Islamic countries firmly supported it, to help China restore its legal status in the UN. Similarly, China has never hesitated or been absent in its support for the Palestinian issue, which is of the greatest concern to the Islamic world,” Wang Yi commented.

He said after the COVID outbreak, Islamic countries immediately offered China valuable support, and China also provided 1.3 billion doses of vaccines and a large amount of anti-epidemic supplies to 50 Islamic countries in a timely manner.

To date, China has signed cooperation documents with 54 Islamic countries and carried out nearly 600 major projects involving 400 billion US dollars, bringing tangible benefits to the two peoples, he added.

The Chinese foreign minister said both the Chinese civilization and the Islamic civilization had made great contributions to human civilization in history.

“They have been treated unfairly in modern times. Now they are joining hands on the road of development and rejuvenation. We should vigorously advocate equal-footing dialogue, exchanges and mutual learning among civilizations, draw wisdom from each other’s time-honored civilizations, and jointly resist discrimination and clash of civilizations.” He said the theme of the moot reflected the common aspiration of most countries in the world.

He suggested upholding exchanges and mutual learning among civilizations, oppose the theory of “the superiority of civilizations”, the theory of “clash of civilizations”, and the distortion and smear of non-Western civilizations. He also called for deepening preventive counter-terrorism and deradicalization cooperation, rejecting “double standards” in counter-terrorism, and opposing the linking terrorism with any particular ethnic group or religion.