On the occasion of President Xi Jinping’s state visit to the UK, Foreign Minister Wang Yi expressed in an interview a few days ago that this year is decisive for the world peace and development, and China and the UK are destined to play an important role in this course. In the process of building a new type of international relations, China and the UK have every reason to become good partners with sincere cooperation.

Wang Yi said that this year marks the 70th anniversary of the victory of the World Anti-Fascist War, for which China, the UK and many other countries in the world held solemn commemorations in different ways. An important enlightenment the history renders us is that militaristic aggression and hegemony are not the path for mankind to peace and the winner-take-all mindset and zero-sum game are not the path to development of human beings. Against the backdrop of today's accelerating world multi-polarization, economic globalization, cultural diversification and social informatization, all countries face growing interdependence, deepening intergrowth of interests and stakes in others’ prosperity and recession. Therefore, the peaceful development and win-win cooperation is the correct path all countries should take.

He said that this year is also the 70th anniversary of the founding of the United Nations (UN). Last month, leaders of countries around the world gathered in New York to put forward ideas on how to build a better future for mankind. President Xi Jinping expounded on China's proposal of a new type of international relations, with emphasis on establishing partnership in which countries treat each other as equals with mutual consultations and mutual understanding, building a security pattern featuring fairness and justice contributed and shared jointly by nations, striving for open, innovative and inclusive development prospects that benefit all, advancing inter-civilization exchanges featuring harmony in diversity and inclusiveness and building an ecosystem that puts Mother Nature and green development first, so as to form the general layout and general path to forge a community of shared destiny for mankind in “five dimensions”. This systematic proposal has provided a new concept and opened up new prospects for the development of international relations.

When it came to China-UK relations, Wang Yi said that in the process of building a new type of international relations, China and the UK have every reason to be partners with sincere cooperation. As two countries with important influence in the world and as permanent members of the UN Security Council, China and the UK share similar views on many international and regional issues and have increasingly converged interests. Xi Jinping’s state visit is another one by a Chinese President to the UK in the ten years and also a historic one since the China-UK comprehensive strategic partnership entered a new decade. It is believed that the visit will certainly further enhance the level of China-UK comprehensive strategic partnership and push the two sides to take new steps in jointly building a new type of international relations with win-win cooperation as the core.

Wang Yi noted that China and the UK should be good partners with equality and mutual trust. The history and practice of China-UK relations have repeatedly shown that despite different social systems, development stages, histories and cultures, as long as the two countries respect each other and treat each other equally, continuously enhance political mutual trust and always view the bilateral relations from a long-term and strategic perspective, China-UK relations will be able to maintain sustainable, stable and healthy development.

Wang Yi said that China and the UK should be good partners with mutually beneficial development. The UK is China’s second largest trading partner, largest investment destination and second largest source of actual investment within the European Union (EU). China is the UK’s second largest trading partner outside the EU and the main investment destination in Asia. China has put forward the “Belt and Road” initiative and is formulating its “thirteenth Five-Year Plan” for economic and social development. The UK has formulated plans of building “Economic Center in Northern England” and the “Strategy of UK Industry 2050”. The two sides should step up docking of development strategies and strengthen practical cooperation in growth innovation, production capacity, finance and other fields to better benefit the two peoples.

He said that China and the UK should be good partners to jointly promote security. The two sides have maintained close communication in counter-terrorism, peacekeeping, cyberspace security and other issues, and played active roles in co-combat against the Ebola epidemic in Western Africa and the proper handling of the Iranian nuclear issue, the South Sudanese issue and other regional hotspot issues. China is ready to continue to strengthen coordination with the UK in international and regional issues so as to jointly promote world peace and stability.

Wang Yi indicated that China and the UK should be good partners with inclusiveness and mutual reference. Both China and the UK are countries with great culture and civilization. At present, bilateral personnel exchanges each year exceed one million person times, and 51 pairs of sister cities have been forged between the two countries. This year marks the first China-UK Year of Cultural Exchange in history, and the two sides have held a series of colorful activities which were warmly welcomed by the two peoples. China is ready to work with the UK to further deepen people-to–people and cultural exchanges and expand cooperation in areas such as tourism, local affairs, youth and women so as to make the China-UK friendship gain more popularity.

We will “brave the winds and waves and sail to the vast oceans”. Wang Yi said that in the context of the new era, China and the UK must seize the opportunities to ride on the momentum, and take President Xi Jinping’s visit to the UK as a new starting point to open up a new chapter in bilateral relations in the “golden era”.