This combo photo shows Yang Jiechi (left), a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, and Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. (PHOTOS / XINHUA)

SINGAPORE - China is willing to join hands with Singapore and other member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to promote regional as well as global peace, stability, development and prosperity, said Yang Jiechi, a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee. 

Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong met Yang here at the Istana on Thursday. Lee emphasized that the COVID-19 pandemic requires more than ever that countries work together and communicate with each other rationally.

As this year marks the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between China and Singapore, the China-Singapore relations are at a new historic starting point, Yang Jiechi said

Yang, also director of the Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the CPC Central Committee, said at the meeting that the spread of COVID-19 has made it increasingly clear that humanity shares common destiny while pointing out rising instability and uncertainties in the current international situation. 

China is also willing to work together with Singapore and other ASEAN countries to deepen strategic mutual trust and pragmatic cooperation and to make concerted efforts with them to safeguard economic globalization and fairness and justice in the international arena, Yang said.

In the face of the epidemic, China and Singapore have been helping each other and keeping the industrial and supply chains stable and smooth, the senior Chinese diplomat said, pointing the various bright spots in the joint anti-COVID-19 efforts between the two countries.

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As this year marks the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between China and Singapore, the China-Singapore relations are at a new historic starting point, Yang said.

China stands ready to work with Singapore to strengthen what they have achieved in the fight against the COVID-19, further promote the high-quality joint development of the Belt and Road and build the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor, a joint project of western Chinese provincial regions and Singapore under the government-to-government framework of the China-Singapore (Chongqing) Demonstration Initiative on Strategic Connectivity.

The Singapore PM said the achievements the two countries have scored in their relations are beyond the imagination when the ties were forged 30 years ago.

Lee added that Singapore would take good use of the existing bilateral cooperation mechanism with China to push forward the ASEAN-China relationship and jointly spur the regional and global economic recovery.

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Yang Jiechi was on a two-day visit here from Wednesday. During his visit, Yang also met Singapore's Deputy Prime Minister, Coordinating Minister for Economic Policies and Minister for Finance Heng Swee Keat, Senior Minister and Coordinating Minister for National Security Teo Chee Hean and Minister for Foreign Affairs Vivian Balakrishnan.