Chinese President Xi Jinping on Tuesday called for collective actions and close cooperation to make global development more inclusive, beneficial to all, and more resilient, and stressed the importance of joint efforts to unclog industrial and supply chains and stabilize market prices to tackle food and energy crises.
He made the appeal when delivering a speech at the first session of the 17th Group of 20 (G20) summit here, and also when meeting with world leaders.
Xi's remarks came at a critical moment when the world economy is facing a bunch of mixed and acute challenges including the increasing risk of deep recession, growing attempts to form bloc politics and stoke confrontation, wider gap between the rich and the poor, as well as the worsening food and security crises.
As experts and observers said, as global development is threatened by those formidable challenges, Xi's speech, which has elaborated on China's answer to those problems and showed its commitment to a better future, will help build up stronger global consensus, advance global cooperation, bolster world economic growth and achieve common prosperity.
SOLIDARITY, COOPERATION THE ONLY WAY OUT
The world is going through unprecedented difficulties unseen in many decades, and the rising protectionism and isolationism, the resurgence of the outdated Cold-War mentality as well as arbitrary sanctions have seriously disrupted international cooperation to shore up recovery.
To address this situation, the Chinese president, in his speech at the G20 summit, called on countries, world's major economies in particular, to stand with each other in the face of risks and challenges, join hands together, and elevate win-win cooperation to a new height.
"I always believe that the G20 should stay committed to its founding purpose of unity and cooperation, carry forward the spirit of solidarity, and uphold the principle of consensus," he said, noting that "only solidarity and common development is the right choice to make."
Selcuk Colakoglu, director of the Turkish Center of Asia Pacific Studies, agreed with Xi's proposal, saying "a coordinated global approach to those problems of the world is a must" because there is no single national solution to handle the challenges.
Boosting partnership and cooperation is also a major topic during a series of bilateral meetings between Xi and leaders of other countries on Tuesday. When meeting French President Emmanuel Macron, Xi said China stands ready to work with France to step up communication and coordination on issues including climate response and biodiversity conservation, jointly uphold true multilateralism, tackle global challenges such as food and energy security, and find solutions to the thorny issues confronting sustainable development.
When holding talks with Senegalese President Macky Sall, Xi said China will continue to enhance solidarity and cooperation with Senegal and other African countries to jointly build a China-Africa community with a shared future in the new era.
In his meeting with South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol, Xi stressed that China is ready to work with South Korea to promote cultural exchanges and cooperation, scale up communication and coordination at the G20 and other fora, jointly practice true multilateralism and safeguard overall peace and stability in the region.
As Xi noted, to deepen cooperation among all countries is the only viable way to get through the difficult times, said Mohammed Saqib, Indian economist and secretary-general of the India-China Economic and Cultural Council.
"China has set an example of collaboration and commitment with other countries amid the COVID-19 pandemic. I think this is when governments should follow suit and come forward for holistically enhanced all-around cooperation to pull out of this chaos," the economist added.
