Xi says China to march hand-in-hand with Singapore on road of modernization

LIMA - Chinese President Xi Jinping said on Friday that China is ready to work with Singapore to keep to the general direction of their friendship and continue to march forward hand-in-hand on the road of modernization.

Xi made the remarks in a meeting with Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong on the sidelines of the 31st APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting.

Xi noted that China and Singapore are friendly neighbors and important cooperative partners, saying that under the careful nurturing of successive generations of leaders of the two countries, bilateral ties have kept growing, setting a good example of mutual benefit and common development.

Last year, bilateral relations were upgraded to an all-round high-quality future-oriented partnership, which has charted the course for the future development of China-Singapore relations, Xi said.

At present, both countries, Xi said, are at a critical stage of national development, adding that next year will mark the 35th anniversary of diplomatic relations between China and Singapore.

The Chinese side is ready to work with Singapore to intensify high-level exchanges, adhere to honesty and mutual trust and respect each other's core interests, and open a new chapter of high-quality development, he added.

Singapore's participation in China's reform and opening-up started early and has yielded fruitful results in a wide range of areas, Xi noted, saying that Singapore is welcome to seize the new opportunities of China's development, continue to build cooperation projects such as the Suzhou Industrial Park, China-Singapore Tianjin Eco-City, the China-Singapore (Chongqing) Demonstration Initiative on Strategic Connectivity, and China-Singapore Guangzhou Knowledge City, further foster new growth drivers of cooperation in the fields of digital economy, green development and artificial intelligence, and expand cultural and people-to-people exchanges.

In the face of transformations unseen in a century in the world, Xi said, China is willing to strengthen cooperation with Singapore in multilateral arenas such as the United Nations and APEC, and jointly advocate an equal and orderly multi-polar world and a universally beneficial and inclusive economic globalization.

For his part, Wong said the two countries have maintained close high-level exchanges and strong momentum of economic relations, noting that both sides have celebrated the 30th anniversary of the Suzhou Industrial Park.

Singapore-China relations are based on mutual respect and trust, and feature mutual benefit, he said, adding that his country fully understands the Chinese government's position on the Taiwan question, opposes any form of "Taiwan independence," and firmly abides by the one-China principle.

Wong said his country has always been fully confident in the prospects of China's economic development and looks forward to further participating in China's modernization process.

He also said that Singapore is ready to take the opportunity of celebrating the 35th anniversary of the diplomatic ties next year to open up a new chapter of an all-round high-quality future-oriented partnership.

Singapore is willing to work closely with China in multilateral areas such as ASEAN and APEC, oppose protectionism, promote trade and investment facilitation and liberalization, and safeguard regional stability and development, he added.