On 7 November 2017, the Reception Celebrating the 6th Anniversary of the Establishment of ASEAN-China Centre (ACC) was held in Beijing. Around 400 distinguished guests were present, including H.E. Mr. Kong Xuanyou, Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs of China, H. E. Mr. Jose Santiago Sta. Romana, Ambassador of the Philippines, the rotating chair of ASEAN, Ambassadors of Brunei, Cambodia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Charge d'Affaires of Embassies of the Lao PDR and Viet Nam, representatives of Embassies of Indonesia, Thailand and other countries as well as international organizations, officials from relevant ministries of China, former Chinese Ambassadors to ASEAN Member States, and representatives from sectors of business, culture, education, tourism, academics and media.
Assistant Minister Kong Xuanyou stated in his remarks that in recent years, under the leadership of Secretary-General Yang Xiuping, ACC has opened new arena in promoting China-ASEAN cooperation through being host of several productive events on economic, trade, investment, social and cultural fronts. While making positive contribution to the deepening of China-ASEAN relations, ACC has also achieved notable progress in strengthening its institutions and platforms. He commended the achievements of ASEAN in the past 50 years, and expressed that over half a century, ASEAN, with a focus on development, has grown from strength to strength through unity and developed into the first sub-regional community in this part of the world. Committed to developing partnerships, ASEAN has helped put in place a regional cooperation structure featuring ASEAN centrality and served as an important force for advancing regional integration and maintaining regional peace and stability.
He said that the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China had recently successfully concluded. Pursuing major country diplomacy with Chinese characteristics in an all-round way is an important component of the Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era. China will always follow the principles of amity, sincerity, mutual benefit and inclusiveness and the policy of fostering friendship and partnership in its efforts to deepen relations with neighbouring countries. ASEAN is a priority in China’s neighbourhood diplomacy and an important participant of the Belt and Road Initiative. China hopes that, through ASEAN-plus leaders’ meetings to be held in a few days, both sides will be able to upgrade China-ASEAN relations, move the relations from a period of growth to a period of maturity, strengthen medium- and long-term planning for the relations, and elevate the China-ASEAN strategic partnership to a high level. Next year will mark the 15th anniversary of China-ASEAN strategic partnership. ACC is expected to put its unique strength to best use, focus on the priority areas and major projects in bilateral cooperation so as to help deliver the outcomes and consensus reached in leaders’ meetings, make good plans and preparations for relevant events of next year, and fully play its role as a bridge and platform for promoting exchanges and cooperation between China and ASEAN. As host country, China will continue to support ACC’s work and work with ASEAN Member States to build up the capacity of ACC, so as that it can play a bigger role in functional cooperation between China and ASEAN.
Ambassador Jose Romana delivered remarks on behalf of ASEAN. He spoke highly of ACC’s contribution to promoting better understanding among the peoples of ASEAN and China and to realizing economic opportunities which further broaden the regional economic pie and narrow the development gap within and among countries. He appreciated ACC’s dedication, hard work and commitment under the leadership of Secretary-General Yang Xiuping. He expressed that for the past 26 years, as Dialogue Partner, China has supported ASEAN in its efforts to realize ASEAN Community Vision 2025, in its centrality in the evolving regional architecture through ASEAN-led processes, in enhancing connectivity within ASEAN and the region, in increasing production capacity, in advancing science and technology, as well as other relevant areas such as education, environmental protection and etc. Furthermore, China continues to be ASEAN’s largest trading partner since 2009. For the past six years and henceforth, ACC has endeavored to implement the agreements between ASEAN and China and made numerous achievements. Going forward, ASEAN remains fully supportive of ACC's endeavors in shaping a better future for the peoples of ASEAN and China.
ACC Secretary-General Yang Xiuping thanked various sectors from ASEAN and China for their strong support and assistance over the years. She briefed on ACC’s work in the year 2017, which marks the 50th anniversary of ASEAN and the ASEAN-China Year of Tourism Cooperation. She said that ACC’s development over the past six years has carried the expectations of ASEAN Member States and China. On 6 August this year, the foreign ministers of ASEAN Member States and China signed the revised edition of Memorandum of Understanding on Establishing ACC at the ASEAN-China Foreign Ministers' Meeting held in Manila, where they commended ACC’s work, and looked forward to an even bigger role of ACC in deepening friendly exchanges and cooperation between the two sides. Standing at a new starting point, ACC is ready to redouble its efforts and join hands with friends from all walks of life to forge ahead and make greater contributions to the bright future of ASEAN-China relations.
Assistant Minister Kong Xuanyou, Ambassador Jose Romana, Secretary-General Yang Xiuping, together with Ambassadors and representatives of the Embassies of ASEAN Member States to China, cut the commemorative cake for the 6th anniversary of ACC. The reception also presented an ASEAN Tourism Photo Exhibition. Huaxia Ancient Music Arts Orchestra of Henan Museum played several pieces of music that are recognized as Intangible Cultural Heritage, manifesting the beauty of Chinese ancient melodies and artistically presenting customs and etiquettes of the history and culture of central China. All the participants wished ASEAN-China relations could be elevated to a new height and ACC could achieve even bigger progress in its future work.
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