By Xinhua,
Beijing : China Thursday urged Asian and European countries close cooperation in a bid to form a new Asia-Europe partnership.
“Asia and Europe are more than ever closely interconnected and interdependent, promising broader prospects for Asia-Europe cooperation,” Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi Yang said.
“To seek peace, development and cooperation is the common desire of people in Asia, Europe and beyond,” said the foreign minister during his speech at the opening of the Fifth Asia-Europe Parliamentary Partnership Meeting (ASEP-V) here.
Politically, both Asia and Europe stand for multilateralism and both are major forces in promoting the healthy development of international relations, he said.
Economically, both are witnessing steady growth and “our economies have much to offer to each other”, he added.
As a mechanism connecting the two continents, the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) has established itself as an important channel of dialogue and cooperation between the two continents, the foreign minister said.
“It has registered significant progress in the three areas of political dialogue, economic cooperation and social and cultural exchanges,” Yang said and added that the two continents must find ways for deeper coordination and cooperation, in a bid to “adapt to the changing situation and meet the traditional and non-traditional security challenges”.
China will host the seventh ASEM summit in Beijing Oct 24-25 with the theme “Vision and Action: Towards a Win-Win Solution,” with all 45 ASEM partners attending.