KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 24 – China Vice Foreign Minister Liu Zhenmin said here on Sunday that the China has pledged a 3.6 billion yuan (USD563.6 million) grant assistance to underdeveloped ASEAN members next year. He said China would also set aside USD10 billion for the second phase of the China-ASEAN special infrastructure loan to further support connectivity in the region.
“China also proposes to explore and foster the possibility of production- capacity cooperation with ASEAN and support the countries to speed up industrialisation and urbanisation,” he said when he speak at a press conference in the Malaysian capital Sunday on the outcome of the 27th ASEAN Summit 2015 and Related Summits.
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang attended the related meetings, including the 18th ASEAN-China Summit, 18th ASEAN Plus Three Summit and 10th East Asia Summit. ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
Describing the ASEAN-related meetings as fruitful, Liu said that among others the ASEAN-China Summit adopted a five-year action plan to implement a strategic partnership for peace and prosperity over the 2016-2020 period. He said the documents, which included 300 cooperative measures, covered political, security, economic, cultural, social, people-to-people and sub-regional cooperation. He said it is an important measure for China to support ASEAN community-building.
Liu said China and ASEAN also agreed to hold commemorative activities to celebrate their 25th anniversary of dialogue relations next year. The activities included a commemorative summit and the designating of 2016 as the year of education exchange between China and ASEAN.
He also said that China would continue to build military facilities on its artificial islands in the disputed South China Sea for defence and protection of the islands and reefs. He lastly added that the claims of that China is pursuing militarisation in the South China Sea is a false statement. He said there were no one should link such military facilities with efforts to militarise the South China Sea.
