Diplomat: Openness key to global relations

China's diplomatic missions will earnestly expand the country's global partnerships based on equality, openness and cooperation in the new year, senior Chinese diplomat Wang Yi said.

Wang, who is a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, made the comment in a signed article in his capacity, for the first time, as director of the Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the CPC Central Committee.

The article was published on Sunday in the first issue this year of the committee's flagship magazine Qiushi.

The Xi Jinping Thought on Diplomacy "breaks new ground for China's diplomatic theories", and the country's diplomacy successfully advances the building of a community with a shared future for mankind and addresses the yearning of people around the world for peace, development and collaboration, he wrote.

Currently, 150 countries and 32 international organizations are part of the big family of the Belt and Road Initiative, according to the article. In terms of advancing an open world economy in the new year, China will further advance the co-building of the Belt and Road, Wang said.

China will "provide more convenience for the exchange of visits with the outside world", and "secure a stable and well-functioned production chain and supply chain", he wrote.

Su Xiaohui, an associate research fellow at the China Institute of International Studies, noted that China's great sense of duty as a major country is also a feature of its major country diplomacy.

"China has never ignored the challenges that developing countries in the world are facing, and seeks more efforts to guard their legitimate rights and interests, as well as wants more opportunities for developing nations to spur their growth," she said.

As part of the nation's new year resolution for diplomacy, Chinese diplomats will be dedicated to head-of-state diplomacy and shape external conditions for realizing high-quality development, according to Wang.

China will deepen strategic mutual trust and mutually beneficial collaboration with Russia, and it will discuss with the United States about the guiding principles of their relations and make further fine-tuning to ensure the relations go in the right path, he noted.

"Over the past year, we have relentlessly explored the right way for China and the US — two major countries — to get along with each other," he wrote.

Beijing will work for closer high-level exchanges and strategic communication with Europe, and push for the steady development of China-Europe relations, he said.

"As two major forces champion world peace and two major markets promote common growth, the development of China-Europe relations matters to the stability of the global landscape and the prosperity of the Eurasian continent," he noted.

China will deepen its friendship, mutual trust and convergence of interests with neighboring countries while reinforcing unity and collaboration with other developing countries and defending their rights and interests, he added.