Sending stern message to its neighbours, China today said it is committed to working for sustained peace and stability in the Asia Pacific region, but at the same time it would remain steadfast in safeguarding its core national interests.
China's hope for sustained peace and stability in this region and stress on dialogues and consultations for the sake of peace by no means denote unconditional compromise, Qi Jianguo, deputy chief of general staff of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) of China, said.
"Our resolve and commitment to safeguarding core national interests always stands steadfast," Qi said in a speech at the 12th Shangri-La Dialogue, a multilateral forum organised by London-based think tank International Institute for Strategic Studies in Singapore today.
He was apparently referring to China's maritime disputes in the South China Sea and with Japan in the East China Sea as well as border dispute with India.
Qi said China upholds an open spirit of not only taking strides towards the world, but also welcoming the world to engage China, with the purpose of sharing resources and jointly creating a better future.
"For this end, we should discard cold-war mentality, go beyond the outdated zero-sum games, and refrain from building military alliances, setting imaginary enemies and taking actions against a third party," he said.
To realise prosperity, stability and development of Asia- Pacific region, one cannot merely rely on the efforts of a single nation, nor on expansion and plundering, even less on the obsession with use of force, the only way forward is to take cooperation as the overriding principle, Qi said.
"We believe that win-win development entails sharing of interests, one should take the legitimate concerns of others' into consideration instead of only maximising one's own interests," state-run Xinhua news agency quoted Xi as saying.
He stressed that countries, no matter big or small, are all equal, and they should respect each other and build win-win relationships.
The 12th Shangri-La Dialogue, which opened on May 31, gathered defence ministers, vice ministers, senior military officials and scholars from over 20 Asia-Pacific countries and regions, as well as countries in North America, Europe and the Middle East.
