During a press conference, the foreign minister announced that this year China will hold the third forum of the Belt and Road Initiative for International Cooperation and the first bilateral summit with Central Asia, as part of its plans to expand partnerships and promote a new type of links between the different States world-wide.

“As the world faces great changes unseen in a century, China will continue to pursue an independent foreign policy of peace and implement the mutually beneficial opening-up strategy,” he said. “Beijing will always stand for peace, development and stability in a global order, but it will also oppose hegemony, abuse of political power and clash of blocs.”

Talking about the opportunities rising from China’s modernization process, Qin denied accusations that the Belt and Road project contains debt traps, saying it has helped create jobs, reduce poverty and improve infrastructure in the participating countries.

Regarding relations with Russia, he emphasized that they do not target third parties and instead seek to protect multipolarity, democracy and balance in international affairs.

He reiterated China’s commitment to start peace negotiations as soon as possible to end the conflict in Ukraine, after remarking that “sanctions and pressure will not solve the problem, instead, calm, reasoning and dialogue are needed.”

He also called on the United States to abandon efforts to contain China, to do more to debug bilateral ties of friction and work together for peaceful coexistence.

Among other issues, Qin reassured China’s sovereignty over Taiwan, stressed the role of youth in national development and deplored the Western strategy of confrontation in the Indo-Pacific region.

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