My dear friends, colleagues, People of China,

People who are suffering and struggling with the novel coronavirus.

First, as a friend of China and Chinese people, I would like to offer my deepest condolences for the lives lost in this epidemic. I want to share with you my profound respect for all that you are doing under such terrible and almost impossible circumstances.

Your courage and patience, hard work and empathy, knowledge and wisdom are not only hope for saving your great nation, but also the rest of the world as well. Today you are the first line of global defense for humanity facing the grim threat of a potential pandemic.

This is not fight for your future alone. It is a fight for all our futures.

The novel coronavirus threatens all of us today. Are we ready, willing and capable of having a shared future or shall we have no future at all?

The new coronavirus does not care about our borders, our norms and rules, our economic or political disputes. All of us wherever we are, are confronted with this deadly threat. This is not the first but it could be one of the last viruses threatening humanity.

Viruses like this one are not only a common threat, but also an opportunity to come together in the fight with shared leadership, shared values, shared security, shared responsibility, shared benefits and a shared vision for a shared future.

Even when the world is wide awake and aware, I see hope in this serious situation. The unity of China and willingness to tackle this horrible virus at the same time, but also a huge desire to find a solution, the cure, and save lives, gives me a hope and also a great respect for the people of China.

You are fighting not only against this deadly unknown virus but against ignorance, selfishness, prejudices and even fake news that at times are spreading faster than the virus itself.

In this battle you are set, once again, to be an example to the world with your excellent organizational and mobilization capabilities.

Your 5,000 years of accumulated culture, selfless dedication and unity based on accumulated wisdom, and last four decades of historically unprecedented enormous growth directed at eradicating poverty while building the knowledge centers of global excellence, give me full confidence in your capacity to win this battle.

I believe that one day, soon, your struggle with the epidemic will be another building block for a community with a shared future for humanity. It will be logical consequence of Chinese, with accumulated thousands of years of Chinese culture and recent achievements in global poverty eradication, economic and technological heights.

I'm sure that China has a strength under the leadership of President Xi Jinping to prevail over this epidemic and overcome the threat confronting all of us. Determination driven by the force of shared future in dignity and prosperity for all, is the reason why I believe that better days are ahead.

I believe that you, and we, can make the right choices for our shared future to ensure the brighter days to come.

In closing, I salute you, with the wise words of a poet: 

There is a tide in the affairs of men. Which taken at the flood, leads on to fortune.

Omitted, all the voyage of their life is bound in shallows and in miseries.

On such a full sea are we now afloat.

And we must take the current when it serves, or lose our ventures

－William Shakespeare

The author is former prime minister of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The views don't necessarily reflect those of China Daily