Abdel Raouf el-Reedy, a veteran Egyptian diplomat in his 70s,
has said that 2006 was a harvest year for China's diplomacy
measured by all standards.
"China has achieved some very important successes on the
diplomatic front," said Reedy, chairman of the Egyptian Council of
Foreign Affairs and former Egyptian Ambassador to the United
States, in a recent interview with Xinhua.
Reedy said that the most important success for China in 2006 was
the hosting of the Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa
Cooperation (FOCAC) on Nov. 3-5, which was attended by
Chinese President Hu Jintao and over 30 African leaders.
Apart from the summit, Reedy said that there were other
significant events for China, including President Hu's four-nation
tour in late November including India and Pakistan, a visit by new
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in October, the hosting of a
China-ASEAN summit and resumption of the six-party talks on the
Korean Peninsula nuclear issue, among others.
China has been playing an increasingly important role in
international affairs, particularly regional ones, said Reedy.
"China's foreign policies have successfully conveyed to the
world an image of (seeking) development, cooperation, peaceful
coexistence and a harmonious world, instead of military
confrontation," he said.
Reedy was referring to the vision of building a "harmonious
world," which was first announced by Hu in September 2005 when he
delivered a speech at a summit on the 60th anniversary of the
establishment of the UN in New York.
In his speech, Hu said multilateralism, mutually beneficial
cooperation and the spirit of inclusiveness should be upheld in
realizing common security and prosperity and in building a
harmonious world.
"It is a very important vision and it comes in accordance with
the UN Charter and the principle of peaceful coexistence. (it is)
the answer to many conflicts in today's world," Reedy said.
He said the vision was to seek to build cooperative and peaceful
relations between nations and eliminate military occupation, adding
under the vision, neither would there be military intervention or
military occupation and wars like the Iraqi war in 2003.
Terming the Sino-African relations as "very good," he said that
the FOCAC Beijing Summit has given a strong impetus to the further
development of African-Chinese relations, which started 50 years
ago when Egypt became the first African nation to establish
diplomatic ties with the People's Republic of China.
African nations, including Egypt, spoke highly of the FOCAC
summit as an opportunity to deepen brotherly relations between
China and Africa, Reedy said, adding that Chinese and African
leaders reached consensus and signed many agreements at the
summit.
He also lauded a package of assistance, investment, trade and
other key cooperation projects with Africa, which was announced by
Hu at the summit.
Reedy expressed hope that China should make sure that once those
agreements and measures are implemented, benefits could be reached
out to the African civil society.
Reedy also dismissed accusations that China is the so-called
neo-colonist in Africa, saying such a theory is completely
wrong.
"China respects Africa and China always emphasizes equality and
mutual benefit in terms of African-Chinese economic cooperation,"
he said, adding that African countries have gained benefit from
trade and economic cooperation with China.
Nowadays, African countries see China as a model for economic
development, as most African countries are facing many challenges
in economic growth, Reedy said.
(Xinhua News Agency December 29, 2006)
