West should pay heed to Xi's Davos message

On January 17, Chinese President Xi Jinping delivered very important messages at the virtual event of the World Economic Forum in Davos, which can strengthen global solidarity, universal confidence in versatility and give new impetus to responding to global challenges.

One of the important messages voiced by President Xi is a call for strengthening international cooperation in the fight against COVID-19. The fact is that many countries are still confused how to combat the pandemic, and do not know how to correctly and competently build a world after the pandemic. In his speech, Xi clearly stated that defeating the pandemic and building a world after COVID-19 are the main issues of common interest for humanity."These are also important, urgent questions that we need to answer," he said. It is time for some of the big players who oppose globalization to open their eyes wide and see what the world has become in the context of the ongoing pandemic: serious problems are growing in the areas of employment, food security, education, health, and some countries have even plunged into poverty, chaos and instability.

The only way out of this seemingly hopeless situation is global cooperation and joint fight against the pandemic. This is exactly what Xi asked major countries at a virtual event of the World Economic Forum. Xi said that we need to build cooperation and defeat the pandemic together. The pandemic is proving a protracted one, resurging with more variants and spreading faster than before. It poses a serious threat to people's safety and health, and exerts a profound impact on the global economy.

The second important message voiced by President Xi is that "China is a country that delivers on its promises." However, China did not just fulfill its obligations to partner countries and friends in the fight against the pandemic, but came to their aid as a true and real friend when friends were in trouble. This, it seems to me, is a very important and distinctive character trait that is inherent in the Chinese people.

According to President Xi, China has already sent over two billion doses of vaccines to more than 120 countries and international organizations. Besides, China will provide another one billion doses to African countries, including 600 million doses as donation, and will also donate 150 million doses to ASEAN countries. China has never left and will never leave its partners and friends alone with their problems. However, in the context of the ongoing response to the pandemic and its unprecedented impact on the political and economic life of the country, it is very important to look for alternative incentives for economic growth that can help improve the socio-economic life of countries and return our world to the mainstream of sustainable development.

In view of the pandemic threatening development, the Chinese side has always called for the study of new driving forces for economic growth in order to ensure the stable development of the economies of countries, to simplify cross-border trade - in a word, it has taken real steps to make a certain contribution to the recovery of the world economy. At the virtual event of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Xi made these proposals to help the world recover from the pandemic. "Countries around the world should uphold true multilateralism. We should remove barriers, not erect walls.. We should open up, not close off. We should seek integration, not decoupling. . This is the way to build an open world economy.", he said.

In fact, there is a deep meaning in these words of Xi Jinping, namely the desire of China to build a secure world, as well as a stable and rapidly developing world economy that will be able to cope with all challenges. Are the major players in the Western hemisphere ready to create such a world together with China? This is a very important issue, since humanity today more than ever needs a safe and reliable world without wars and violence.

Here it would be appropriate to recall the new global initiative that Chinese President Xi Jinping proposed at the UN General Assembly, and which is aimed at building a balanced and equal global partnership, and most importantly, to help developing countries, to which China constantly and intensively provides its support in the field of the fight against the pandemic and the negative consequences caused by it in the economies of these countries.

The next important message of Xi that deserves attention is that "confrontation does not solve problems; it only invites catastrophic consequences." Quite rightly, President Xi said that some countries need to abandon the mentality of the Cold War and strive for peaceful coexistence and mutually beneficial outcomes. "We should follow the trend of history, work for a stable international order, advocate common values of humanity, and build a community with a shared future for mankind. We should choose dialogue over confrontation, inclusiveness over exclusion, and stand against all forms of unilateralism, protectionism, hegemony or power politics", Xi Jinping said.

Unfortunately, our world is in a state of chaos, disorder, wars, armed conflicts, ongoing violence, both before the advent of COVID-19 and in the post-pandemic period. Some major countries are building and strengthening their military infrastructure around the world, with particular emphasis on building up nuclear forces. And a number of countries are simply obsessed with joining the ranks of the nuclear powers. Such a policy, first of all, harms the interests of mankind, because ordinary citizens become the victims of all these wars. Only by abandoning the arms race and building up nuclear forces can peace and stability be achieved in the global world and a secure world with a sustainable economy can be created.

Summing up the above, I would like to add that at the virtual event of the World Economic Forum in Davos President Xi proposed many interesting theses and thoughts that can really change our global world for the better, reduce international tension, improve the overall global environmental situation and living and working conditions all people around the world, etc. Despite the fact that not all countries share China's views on the above issues, Beijing is ready to cooperate, including with major Western countries critical of China, to make the global world better and safer.

The author is director of the international expert club EurAsiaAz and editor-in-chief of Azerbaijani news agency Baku Tribune.

The opinions expressed here are those of the writer and do not necessarily represent the views of China Daily and China Daily website.

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