On July 7, 2012, Vice President Xi Jinping attended the opening ceremony of World Peace Forum in Beijing and delivered a speech with the title of Working Together to Safeguard World Peace and Security.
Xi first of all expressed warm congratulations on the Forum and extended sincere greetings to the guests and participating experts and scholars. He said that the Forum is the first high-level unofficial international security forum held by China. Its theme Win-Win for All: Peace, Security and Cooperation is a major topic which is vital to the future of the world and the happiness of nations and people worldwide. To conduct in-depth discussions and exchanges on this topic will provide new ideas, explore new methods and make new contributions to promoting world peace and security.
He pointed out that the world today is experiencing major development, transformation and readjustments and the international situation is undergoing profound and complex changes. Peace and development remain the call of the times. Meanwhile, the international community faces more complicated and volatile security challenges and there is still a long way to go to safeguard world peace and promote common security.
In today's world, the interests of countries with different systems, different types and different stages of development are increasingly converged and interdependent. Nations share together not only interests but also danger and safety. In this new situation, the implication of security issue has gone far beyond the security concept of balance of power in confrontation during the Cold War, beyond the traditional sense of military security and beyond the security of any individual country and region. Faced with complex and diverse security challenges, no country can easily stay out without being affected, or achieve the so-called 'absolute security' by acting alone. All countries must be cooperative, innovative and responsible and make joint efforts to cope with difficulties and challenges and build a harmonious and stable international and regional security environment. To this end, we should abide by the following concepts and principles.
First, we must seek security through development. Economic development and prosperity is an important guarantee for security. We should continue to attach great importance to and effectively solve the major issue of comprehensive, coordinated and sustainable development, strive to achieve self development, actively support the development of developing countries, try to narrow the development gap between North and South and truly achieve common development and prosperity.
Second, we must seek security based on equality. Treating each other as equals is the basic premise of maintaining security. We should adhere to the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence at any time and under any circumstances and never impose our own will upon others. Universal security should be achieved through equal dialogue and mutually beneficial cooperation.
Third, we must seek security based on mutual trust. To enhance mutual trust is a necessary condition for maintaining security. We should continuously enhance the strategic and political mutual trust among nations, properly handle differences, contradictions and sensitive issues, truly respect the core and major interests of each other, expand strategic consensus and consolidate the foundation of security.
Fourth, we must seek security through cooperation. Dialogue and cooperation is the fundamental way of maintaining security. We should abandon the zero-sum mentality that one wins while the other loses; one prospers while the other suffers. We must seek peace, maintain security and solve confrontations through cooperation, strive to look for and broaden the convergence of interests of all parties and be committed to achieving win-win results for all.
Fifth, we must seek security through innovation. We should resolutely abandon the outdated ideas and obsolete methods and approaches, firmly establish the new security concept of mutual trust, mutual benefit, equality and coordination, build the new philosophy of comprehensive, universal and cooperative security, make efforts to seek new answers to old questions and good answers to new questions to keep resolving the development problems and security dilemmas that human beings are faced with.
He stressed that China which is experiencing rapid industrialization and urbanization always focuses on development and is committed to safeguarding world peace and promoting common development of mankind. The development sought by China is peaceful, open, cooperative and win-win in nature. Practice has proved that China's sustained and rapid development benefits from world peace and development and at the same time China's development creates valuable opportunities and wide spaces for common development. China will continue to pursue the path of peaceful development, push for the building of new relations among major powers, firmly maintain peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific region and assume its international responsibilities and obligations.
He concluded by saying that the world in general is peaceful yet there are regional conflicts and turmoil; there are both opportunities and challenges of development and security. Only by helping each other and conducting win-win cooperation can we gradually achieve universal peace and security in the world and make the 21st century an epoch in which countries enjoy peace and tranquility, common development and prosperity.
Tang Jiaxuan, Chairman of the Forum, presided over the opening ceremony. Former Peruvian President Alan Garcia also addressed the ceremony.
Prior to the opening ceremony, Xi met with delegates including former Peruvian President Alan Garcia, former Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Haji Ahmad Badawi, former Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, former French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, former Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, former Secretary of the Russian Security Council Igor Ivanov and former Secretary General of the EU Council and EU High Representative for Common Foreign and Security Policy Javier Solana and took group pictures with them.
He told the guests that all of them are old friends of the Chinese people and have made remarkable contributions to promoting the friendly relations of their countries and organizations with China. It is of great significance that the Forum invites the world-renowned statesmen and strategists including them to discuss the major issues related to international peace and security. He hopes they contribute more to world peace and security through this platform of the Forum and help enhance the mutual understanding and trust between the Chinese people and people all over the world.
On behalf of the participating former statesmen, Garcia extended gratitude to Xi for meeting them. He said it is very significant the Forum brought together the wisdom of all parties to discuss major issues of world peace and security. China has always been following the policy of friendship and mutual benefit with other countries and been a participant and guarantor of world peace. Greater development of China will be beneficial to solving world problems and promoting world peace and development.
Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi, Minister of Education Yuan Guiren and Chief International Trade Negotiator and Vice Minister of Commerce Gao Hucheng attended the above activities.
The Forum is organized by Tsinghua University and co-organized by the Chinese People's Institute of Foreign Affairs. Nearly 500 Chinese and foreign guests, including the experts and scholars from 22 countries and the diplomats in China from 36 countries attended the opening ceremony.