President's speech offers roadmap to global stability

President Xi Jinping's speech calling on countries around the world to work together to tackle global governance challenges was hailed by international experts as timely and for offering calm and stability at a turbulent time in global politics.

While delivering a keynote speech via video at the opening ceremony of the Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference 2022 on Thursday, Xi likened countries around the world to "passengers aboard the same ship who share the same destiny", noting that "for the ship to navigate the storm and sail toward a bright future, all passengers must pull together".

He also proposed a Global Security Initiative, calling on the international community to reject a Cold War mentality, oppose unilateralism and say no to group politics and bloc confrontation.

Erik Solheim, former United Nations under-secretary-general and former executive director of the UN Environment Programme, said that Xi "rightly warned about a Cold War mentality and underlined that only together can we create a shared future".

He added that Xi very appropriately called for a common platform to bring peace and lower global tensions, and called for respect for national sovereignty while avoiding unilateral action.

"His speech should help find a way toward peace in Ukraine. Even when the West and most developing nations have different perspectives, common ground should be found in the call for an immediate cease-fire, restoration of Ukraine's sovereignty and respect for legitimate Russian security concerns," he said.

Sourabh Gupta, a senior fellow at the Washington-based Institute for China-America Studies, said that Xi gave a timely speech that was calm and stabilizing during a very turbulent and destabilized time in international politics.

Gupta was impressed by the Global Security Initiative that Xi proposed, which is related to the principles that underlie the UN Charter as well as the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence.

"At a time when Western advanced countries are toying with the (very bad) idea of expelling or distancing Russia from international groupings such as the G20, the message correctly was that international society must come together as a group and resolve matters internally rather than forming in-groups, out-groups and excluded parties," he said.

Gupta added that he was impressed with Xi's statement that "when Asia fares well, the whole world benefits", and hence it was essential for Asia to shoulder the responsibility to serve as an anchor for world peace, he added.

Dicky Budiman, an epidemiologist at Griffith University in Australia, said he strongly agreed with Xi that global collaboration is required when it comes to dealing with global health threats or problems, and appreciated when Xi emphasized the importance of global health security.

As Asia has a large population and a huge economy, Budiman said the continent should play a key role in ensuring global health security.

"I agree with making Asia an anchor for world peace and the lead in the global community to make the world more resilient. This is an important step not only for Asia itself but also for humanity," said Budiman.

Gerald Mbanda, a Rwandan researcher and publisher on China and Africa, said that Xi's remarks on the integration of the international community and how acts to remove any single part will cause serious problems to its operation are all the more important today amid the ongoing Russia-Ukraine crisis.

He said that the call by the United States and NATO for sanctions and isolation of Russia is causing problems for the whole world with the disruption of the supply chain for essential commodities, leading to inflation and increased prices.

Yosuke Tsuyuguchi, a professor at the Department of Economics at Teikyo University in Tokyo, said China, which has a large presence in the world in terms of trade and diplomacy, has a clear and stable policy on post-COVID-19 development.

"It is of great significance and will give a certain guideline as well as a sense of stability to the entire world. In this regard, the Chinese top leader's philosophy on promoting the development of the world is very important and worth attention," Tsuyuguchi said.

Wang Xu in Tokyo, and Liu Hongjie and Chen Yingqun in Beijing contributed to this story.