This year marks the 10th anniversary of China's concept of amity, sincerity, benevolence and tolerance in its neighboring countries. Under the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative, landmark projects such as the China-Laos Railway and the Jakarta-Bandung High-speed Railway have been realized, and many "small but beautiful" livelihood projects have benefited Southeast Asian countries. The Belt and Road Initiative, the Global Development Initiative, the Global Security Initiative and the Global Civilization Initiative complement each other, contributing China's solutions to improving the global governance system and promoting the building of a community with a shared future for mankind.
The Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia, proposed in 1976, is the basic peace treaty of ASEAN, embodying the universal principles of peaceful coexistence, friendship and cooperation among member states and all countries in the world. Looking back, China was one of the first countries outside ASEAN to sign the treaty, and a decade later, it put forward the concept of neighboring diplomacy based on amity, sincerity and inclusiveness.
The diplomatic philosophy of amity, sincerity and inclusiveness reflects China's consistent commitment to promoting permanent peace and cooperation in international exchanges over the past decades. Since then, this concept has evolved into three global initiatives that cover the interests of all mankind, namely the Global Development Initiative, the Global Security Initiative and the Global Civilization Initiative. Twenty years after signing the Treaty, China has succeeded in elevating the common aspirations of the Treaty to a higher level through the launch of the three major global initiatives.
The complementarity between the three global initiatives in the pursuit of lasting peace and prosperity through development cooperation has made it a sufficient replacement for the existing ill-ridden global governance architecture.
From China's perspective, development and security have never been mutually exclusive. Development is seen as the foundation for security, which creates favourable conditions for development. It is true that there can be no sustainable development without peace. Without sustainable development, there can be no peace.
While satisfying the needs of development is a universal pursuit, collective security cannot be guaranteed by the uneven development of any region alone. On the other hand, under the concept of "amity, sincerity, benefit and tolerance", only those who are willing to share the dividends of development can bring peace.
The lofty ideal of building a community with a shared future for mankind embodies shared wisdom, including expertise, experience, and even prosperity. This ideal has gone far beyond the scope of "rich neighbors". The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is a global initiative that extends beyond China's "immediate neighbors."
In this context, the GDI has become a development platform to promote cross-border cooperation in the field of sustainable development, in line with the 2030 United Nations Agenda for Sustainable Development.
Like the Belt and Road Initiative, the GDI stands in stark contrast to the EU's Global Gateway Initiative and the G7's Global Infrastructure and Investment Partnership. The latter two are largely driven by returns on private investment.
It is undeniable that the concept of affinity, sincerity and inclusiveness has greatly changed the pattern of infrastructure and logistics connectivity in the ASEAN region. The completion of the China-Laos Railway and the Jakarta-Bandung High-speed Railway is inseparable from the continuous encouragement of the spirit of friendship upheld by the Belt and Road Initiative.
With the announcement of eight actions at the 3rd Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation, the diplomatic concept of "amity, sincerity, benefit and tolerance" under the framework of China's neighborhood diplomacy is exploring ASEAN's development needs in a higher and broader dimension.
As the Belt and Road Initiative enters its second decade, more green initiatives with low-carbon and sustainable development as the core have become the new focus of ASEAN's development agenda. At the same time, it is also for ASEAN 6The well-being of the 700 million people has ushered in a new era of development.
Unlike the "hard connectivity" of physical infrastructure, which requires a large amount of capital investment, the "Eight Actions" focus on capacity building and technology empowerment to meet the social needs of BRI partner countries, thus adding a new dimension of "soft connectivity" to the BRI initiative.
At the same time, small but beautiful livelihood-supporting projects are expected to proliferate, benefiting hundreds of millions of people in the Global South, including ASEAN.
These projects are insignificant in scale compared to the huge developments of the past. Nonetheless, the implementation of these projects is an important step that is expected to help rebuild the competitiveness of BRI partner countries. All of this is made possible by a partnership that is always good and inclusive, and the creativity that transforms that relationship into something that can make a difference.
Looking back, the common desire of China and ASEAN to pursue friendship may have been driven only by the need to promote regional peace and prosperity at that time. What the initiators and signatories of the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia may not have imagined is that the multi-dimensional development potential unleashed by the treaty after several setbacks will benefit more than 2 billion people in China and ASEAN.
Even so, we cannot take for granted the partnership of goodwill and inclusiveness that has been established. As we celebrate the 10th anniversary of the concept of "amity, sincerity, benefit and tolerance" and the 10th anniversary of the Belt and Road Initiative, the core element of ASEAN-China relations, "proximity", must be treated with extra care, especially in the context of the widening global trust deficit in the current international order.