In his key-note speech to the forum, Yang Jiemian, vice president of China's Shanghai Institute for International Study, said that these small and medium-sized countries are strong advocators and supporters of peace and stability and they seek economic cooperation and collective security by which their voice can be heard and interest protected.

"It is their sheer size and weight that they sometimes even can play a mediator or facilitator or messenger's role," he added.

The ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) has provided a couple of occasions for China and the United States to meet and look for opportunities to improve Sino-US relations at difficult times and New Zealand used its status to host the informal meeting of APEC leaders in 1999 to facilitate the summit between Chinese President Jiang Zemin and then US President Bill Clinton only a couple of months after the US-led NATO bombing of China's embassy in Belgrade, he told the 500-strong audience at the forum.

He pointed out that these small and medium-sized countries not only often act as balancers and function as buffer zones in major power relations but also move far beyond these traditional thinking.

"For instance, some Southeast Asian countries have realized that a rising China is not a threat but an opportunity. These countries readily accepted Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji's proposal for a free trade zone between 10 ASEAN countries and China." he said.

Mentioning Singapore, he said the city state is making a four-way effort to promote collective security through strengthening its consultation and coordination with other fellow ASEAN members, increasing its ties with the United States, facilitating peace and stability in the Taiwan Straits area and initiating and hosting dialogues on regional security.

On the whole, all its efforts have produced positive results and increased its influence, he said.

(Xinhua News Agency January 8, 2003)