China's foreign minister Yang Jiechi said Tuesday the country's top diplomatic priorities are to serve the needs of domestic development and safeguard sovereignty.
Yang, addressing reporters in Beijing on the sidelines of the annual session of China's legislature, said safeguarding China's sovereignty and security has always been the top objective of all of the country's diplomatic endeavors. He said that, in the past decade, China's diplomacy has actively served domestic economic and social development.
Yang also commented on one of China's most fraught relationships — its ties with the United States. He acknowledged there are some differences between the two sides but said that, on the whole, the relationship is moving forward, not backward.
Yang also called for more high-level exchanges between the two countries as a way to build trust and cautioned Washington to respect Beijing's core interests in places like Taiwan and Tibet as the two countries work to build trust.
Yang welcomed recent progress in talks between the United States and North Korea, which agreed last week to suspend some of its nuclear programs and urged the world community to allow the people of the Middle East to solve their problems without outside interference.
China joined Russia in blocking a U.N. Security Council resolution that called for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Yang said Beijing is sending an envoy to Syria to seek peace and is also promoting a plan that calls on outside powers not to use humanitarian aid as an excuse to interfere in Syria. He urged all warring sides, including the government, to immediately stop fighting.
As for Iran, the minister said China opposes sanctions against Tehran, but also Iran's efforts to develop nuclear weapons. He expressed hope for a return to a multilateral mechanism for negotiating the Iranian crisis.
On economic matters, Yang said China has full confidence in the European common currency and expects to continue to invest there. He said he hopes the global recovery will gain new momentum from a summit later this month of the rapidly developing countries known as the BRICS — Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.
