'Together for a community with a shared future'

Delegations from China, ASEAN countries and the ASEAN Secretariat (ASEC) gathered in Shenzhen on Thursday for the China-ASEAN Senior Officials’ Consultation to review the status of their comprehensive strategic partnership, discuss regional and international issues of common interest and look forward to possibilities of new opportunities for win-win cooperation.

The Chinese Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs Nong Rong and U Chan Aye, ASEAN-Myanmar Senior Officials’ Meeting Leader of Myanmar, co-chaired the Consultation. Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste (East Timor), which ASEAN accepted in principle as the 11th member of the group last November, attended the Consultation as an observer.

Milena Rangel, director-general for ASEAN Affairs in the Ministry for Foreign Affairs and Cooperation of Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, poses for a photo in a BYD Tang EV during a visit to the BYD headquarters in Pingshan District, Shenzhen, on Friday. Wang Haolan

Nong stated that this year marks the 20th anniversary of China joining the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia. China will join hands with ASEAN to build a peaceful, safe and secure, prosperous, beautiful and amicable home; seek further cooperation in emerging industries, new energy, finance, traditional and non-traditional security and people-to-people exchanges; and synergize China’s Global Development Initiative, Global Security Initiative and Global Civilization Initiative with the development of the ASEAN community to build a close-knit China-ASEAN community with a shared future.

“It is the first China-AESAN Senior Official’s Consultation since the establishment of the China-AESAN strategic partnership, which is an opportunity to talk about enhancing political and economic cooperation, social and cultural cooperation and also cooperation in the sub-regional context,” Sidharto R. Suryodipuro, director of ASEAN cooperation at Indonesia’s foreign ministry, said at an interview with Shenzhen Daily on Thursday.

After the Consultation, the delegations took Shenzhen’s iconic red sightseeing double-decker bus on a tour including a visit to the Qianhai Exhibition Hall and Huawei Base in Bantian, Longgang District, and watched a light show at the Civic Center. The delegates also visited BYD headquarters in Pingshan on Friday.

Kung Phoak, Secretary of State of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Cambodia, shared his impression on Shenzhen. “Shenzhen is a city with harmony among growth, nature and humanity,” he said. “Technologies, innovation, supply chains, logistics, finance…all of these are here in Shenzhen.”