Q&A: FM on diplomacy, global situation

Question: The Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2020. This year, it will have meetings in Senegal. What would you say to describe the current China-Africa relations?

Wang Yi: China is the biggest developing country, and Africa is home to the largest number of developing countries. With our shared identity as part of the developing world, China and Africa have the responsibility of advancing the interests of developing countries.

China and Africa have always shared weal and woe. This friendship emerged still stronger from the test of COVID-19 in 2020. President Xi Jinping and African leaders had a successful Extraordinary China-Africa Summit on Solidarity Against COVID-19, and the fine tradition of mutual assistance was further strengthened. China has sent medical teams, paired up Chinese and African hospitals, provided much-needed medical supplies, and worked with Africa on vaccines. The Africa CDC headquarters as an assistance project by China has just had its groundbreaking ceremony. It will stand as a historic witness of China-Africa solidarity in fighting the pandemic.

China and Africa have scaled up the implementation of follow-ups to the FOCAC Beijing Summit, with the health care initiative as a top priority. China has signed debt service suspension agreements with 12 African countries and provided waivers of matured interest-free loan for 15 African countries. China has suspended more debt service than any other G20 member.

Twenty years ago, FOCAC entered a new era of political mutual trust and all-round cooperation between China and Africa. Twenty years on, FOCAC has become a new model of friendship, cooperation and common development among developing countries. Together, we have drafted and implemented the 10 cooperation plans and the eight major initiatives. With China's help, over 6,000 kilometers of railways, 6,000 kilometers of roads, nearly 20 ports and over 80 large power plants have been built in Africa. Two-way trade has grown by 20-fold and China's direct investment in Africa 100-fold. We have expanded cooperation with Africa in new business forms like digital economy, smart city, clean energy and 5G, thus boosting high-quality development of Belt and Road cooperation between the two sides. FOCAC has become a propeller of Africa's leapfrogging development, a new symbol of South-South cooperation, and an example of China's conduct of major-country diplomacy with Chinese characteristics.

In 2021, China and Africa will have FOCAC meetings in Senegal. In this context, China will work with Africa on the three priority areas of vaccine cooperation, economic recovery and transformative development to build new consensus on solidarity, break new ground for cooperation, and deliver new benefits to the people. China and Africa will stay good brothers supporting each other, good partners pursuing common development, and good comrades-in-arms standing together through thick and thin. I believe we will make new progress in building the China-Africa community with a shared future.

Question: Security in places like the Middle East and Afghanistan is still a cause for concern to the international community. The future of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) remains uncertain. Would you elaborate on the role China has played in settling international hotspots and the efforts China has made in promoting peace and stability in relevant regions?

Wang Yi: Peace is an eternal aspiration of humankind. As a permanent member of the Security Council and a responsible major country, China has been exploring a distinctive Chinese way of resolving hotspot issues. We follow a vision of common, comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable security for the world. We maintain that regional disputes should be addressed through dialogue and consultation. We uphold non-interference in internal affairs, which is a basic norm governing international relations. We speak for justice from an objective and sensible perspective. We seek solutions that suit the regional reality and accommodate the interests of all parties. We have done what we can to safeguard peace and tranquility in the world.

Over the past year, while firmly upholding the JCPOA, we have joined the international community in opposing moves inconsistent with Security Council resolutions. We have put forward a constructive proposal of building a new platform for multilateral dialogue for the Gulf region. We have given steadfast support to Palestine's just cause and firmly upheld the right direction of the "two-state solution". We have continued to advocate the phased and synchronized approach to achieve the two goals of denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and establishment of a peace mechanism. We have facilitated consensus-building on Afghanistan's national reconciliation and that among regional players, and supported intra-Afghan talks. We have mediated between Bangladesh and Myanmar in addressing their disagreements, and assisted in maintaining overall stability in northern Myanmar.

Having been torn by wars and conflicts in the past, we Chinese know too well the scourge of turmoil and the value of peace. We hope that hotspot issues will be made to cool down and that peace talks will bring true peace. As for major countries that play a key role in various hotspot issues, we hope that instead of anyone's own selfish interests, they can bear in mind the real interests of regional countries and the well-being of all people in the world, and shoulder due responsibilities and play a constructive role in settling disputes.