Wang to attend ASEAN meetings in Laos, pay official visit

From Thursday to Saturday, Foreign Minister Wang Yi will travel to Laos to attend a series of meetings related to the 10-member grouping — the Association of Southeast Asian Nations — and pay an official visit to Laos.

In Vientiane, the capital of Laos, Wang will attend the ASEAN-China Foreign Ministers' Meeting, the ASEAN Plus Three Foreign Ministers' Meeting, the East Asia Summit Foreign Ministers' Meeting and the ASEAN Regional Forum Foreign Ministers' Meeting, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning announced.

Amid the current slowdown in global economic growth and the lingering geopolitical conflicts, the situation in East Asia has remained steady on the whole, and the region's economic integration has continued to advance, she said at a daily news conference in Beijing.

"It is the common aspiration and widespread wish of the peoples of various countries in the region to make the region continue to be an engine of development and a high ground for cooperation," she said.

China looks to further consolidate the consensus of various parties through the series of foreign ministers' meetings and make political preparations for the outcomes of the series of leaders' meetings on East Asian Cooperation in October, she said.

"China is willing to work with countries in this region to carry forward the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence and promote the region's peace, stability, development and prosperity," she said.

Beijing is willing to speed up negotiations on the 3.0 version of the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area, to jointly build a high-quality Belt and Road, and to implement the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership pact in a quality manner, the spokeswoman said.

China is willing to promote the stability and smooth flow of the region's industrial chain and supply chain, expand cooperation in emerging industries and promote regional economic integration, she noted.

Beijing will work to maintain an open and inclusive ASEAN-centered regional architecture, advocate equal and orderly multipolarity in the world, and properly handle hotspot and sensitive issues, so as to "inject more stability and positivity into the region's situation", she added.