BEIJING, Feb 1 (INP): The recently held China-Afghanistan-Pakistan Foreign Ministers ‘Dialogue produced important common understanding on advancing the peace process in Afghanistan.

The dialogue was moved ahead on China's initiative that received positive support from the relevant parties to achieve the desired results.

This was stated by the State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi while addressing a New Year’s reception held here at the Foreign Ministry. China, he said also played an active mediating role on the Syrian and Palestinian issues, meeting its due responsibility for promoting regional peace.

Welcoming China’s based diplomatic community, Wang Yi appreciated their support and contribution in promoting China's position at regional and international level.

The past year saw continued profound shifts in the international landscape, and a further build-up of factors of instability and uncertainty.

Amid a complicated international situation and great changes unseen in a century, we forged ahead under the strong leadership of the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core, and made new strides in China's foreign relations with a clear sense of purpose.

During the past year, the State Councilor said, “ We established Xi Jinping Thought on Diplomacy as the fundamental guideline for conducting China's foreign affairs in the new era.

We advocated the vision of a community with a shared future for mankind and, keeping in mind the common interests of all countries, provided Chinese perspectives and proposals on navigating the once-in-a-century changes in our world.

The international community is looking to China with higher expectations.

As China moves closer to the center of the global stage, it has a more distinct and prominent role to play.

In 2018, China was an important force for stability. In the face of challenges to WTO rules and multilateralism in general, China stood up to safeguard its lawful rights and interests.”

At the same time, Wang Yi added: “Conscious of international expectations, we have been working with the United States to put our trade friction back on the track of dialogue and consultation, thus providing a positive outlook for the world.

Growing at a high level, China's comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination with Russia has remained rock-solid and served as a source of strategic stability in the world.

China's relations with the rest of the world made steady progress, helping to make the world a more stable place.

In 2018, China was a strong advocate for openness. At important occasions throughout the year, including the conference commemorating the 40th anniversary of reform and opening-up, the first China International Import Expo and the Boao Forum for Asia annual conference, President Xi Jinping conveyed a clear message to the world of China's unwavering commitment to further reform and opening-up, and announced important initiatives to open up the economy.”

Despite the rise of protectionism and headwinds against globalization, Wang Yi further said, China stood firmly on the right side of history. With concrete actions, we demonstrated our sincerity and resolve to share development opportunities with the world and build an open world economy, playing our due role in safeguarding open and inclusive development of the world economy.

In 2018, China was an important driver of cooperation. Last year was the fifth year since President Xi Jinping put forward the Belt and Road Initiative. Building on the outcomes so far, we sought higher-quality development of Belt and Road projects.

In 2018, China was an important engine of development. Defying economic difficulties and downward pressure, China acted on the new development philosophy and achieved a medium-high GDP growth rate of 6.6 percent, hitting all economic targets for 2018.

The Chinese economy now exceeds 90 trillion RMB yuan, with imports and exports totaling more than 30 trillion RMB yuan. It must be noted that consumer spending contributed as much as 76 percent to economic growth last year.

INP/J/AJ