China, FSM are partners share the same future: Ambassador

Chinese President Xi Jinping has arrived in Port Moresby for a state visit to Papua New Guinea and is scheduled to attend the 26th APEC Economic Leaders’ Meeting and meet with leaders of Pacific island countries that have established diplomatic relations with China.

The meeting between President Xi and leaders of the Pacific island countries will be another grand event in the history of the relations between China and Pacific island countries after the 2014 meeting in Fiji.

Located in central Pacific, the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) is a major hub linking Asia and America. It boasts large maritime areas, abundant marine resources, favorable environment and unique traditional culture.

Since the establishment of diplomatic relations 29 years ago, China and the FSM have deepened cooperation at various levels in multiple fields.

Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in 2012, guided by Xi Jinping thought on diplomacy, China has maintained its fine diplomatic traditions of treating all countries as equals and kept the principle of upholding justice while pursuing shared interests and the principle of sincerity, real results, affinity, and good faith, making historic achievements in China-FSM ties.

Following the principle of equality, mutual benefit, openness and sustainable development, China has provided within its available resources sincere and selfless aids to the FSM with no political conditions attached.  China has largely improved the national development of the FSM and people’s livelihood, which received high appreciation from the locals.

China has assisted the FSM in the construction of schools, roads, bridges and government buildings, and carried out a series of projects that won wide support from the public such as demonstration farms and training courses on pest control technology for coconut trees.

The FSM actively participates in the international cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), bringing new opportunities for the economic and trade relations between the two countries.

Under BRI framework, China and the FSM enjoy huge potential for mutually-beneficial cooperation in such fields as trade and investment, infrastructure, agriculture and fishery.

Both countries have maintained increasingly closer people-to-people exchanges. Nearly 100 FSM students received Chinese Government Scholarships and furthered their study in China, and over 200 attended various short-term trainings in China.

Guangdong province in southern China has established a regular mechanism to send medical teams to the FSM, providing free medical services for local patients and training courses for local doctors.

China and the FSM also send art troupes to each other for art performance and exchange. In addition, and the number of Chinese-language teachers in the FSM is also on a rise.

Bilateral cultural cooperation between China and the FSM is showing a sound momentum as the two countries are enhancing personnel exchanges.

As an FSM proverb goes, the people in island countries who live by the sea cannot go against the tides, which reflects the philosophy in which the people in Pacific island countries believe.

Both leaders and people of the FSM carry great conviction that China’s rapid growth is a trend of time that places a profound influence on world. Developing a friendly cooperative relationship between the FSM and China goes with the trend of time. The FSM will resolutely adhere to the one-China principle and firmly promote the in-depth development of FSM-China strategic partnership.

I believe that President Xi’s meeting with leaders of the Pacific island countries will open a new historical chapter in the relations between China and the FSM as well as other Pacific island countries.

In addition, their meeting will also promote the in-depth development of China-FSM strategic partnership, enhance China’s solidarity and cooperation with developing economies, especially small and medium-sized countries, and inject new impetus into the building of a community of shared future of mankind.

By Huang Zheng, Chinese Ambassador to the Federated States of Micronesia.

(People’s Daily)