Xi says Asia faces ‘new challenges’
CHINA: Chinese President Xi Jinping said Sunday that Asia
faced “new challenges” to its stability and warned no one should be
allowed to throw the region into chaos as tensions mounted over North
Korea. Xi, delivering a speech at an annual international forum on the
southern Chinese island of Hainan, did not mention the crisis on the
Korean Peninsula or China's territorial disputes with Japan and
Southeast Asian nations. But he said there should be no tolerance for
those who foster “chaos for selfish gains” and reiterated that China
would “firmly” uphold its “sovereignty” and “territorial integrity”.
Tensions have soared in recent weeks with North Korea threatening
nuclear war after the United Nations imposed fresh sanctions over its
latest atomic test and the US and South Korea launched joint war games.
“We need to make concerted efforts to resolve major difficulties to
ensure stability in Asia,” Xi said.
“Stability in Asia now faces new challenges as hot spot issues keep
emerging and both traditional and non-traditional security threats
exist,” he added.
Speaking more broadly, Xi called on the international community to
push for a “vision of comprehensive security, common security and
cooperative security”. Xi said that was necessary so the world could
become a stage for the pursuit of “common development”, as opposed to
one “where gladiators fight each other”.
“And no one should be allowed to throw a region, even the whole
world, into chaos for selfish gains,” he added.
Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard echoed Xi, saying “all
countries in the region share a deep interest in strategic stability”.
“There, any aggression is a threat to the interests of every country
in the region,” she said in her speech, hailing “the growing cooperation
of all regional governments to prevent conflict on the Korean Peninsula
and to counter North Korean aggression”. Touted as an Asian version of
the World Economic Forum, the three-day Boao gathering has brought
together leaders in government, business and academia in Asia and other
continents every year since 2001 to discuss pressing issues in the
region and the rest of the world.
Among political and financial leaders at this year's event are
Myanmar President Thein Sein, International Monetary Fund Managing
Director Christine Lagarde, Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto and a
former Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda.
AFP |