T

he year 2015 will mark the 65th anniversary of Indonesia-China diplomatic relations, which have seen great progress over the years. The Jakarta Post'€™s Yohanna Ririhena interviewed the visiting chairperson of the Foreign Affairs Committee of China'€™s National People Congress, Fu Ying, to obtain her views on how the two nations could enhance mutual understanding. Below are the excerpts:

Question: How will China materialize Indonesia'€™s wish that the bilateral relationship develops into more concrete outcomes that benefit people from both countries?

Answer: China shares the wish of Indonesia that our cooperation should bring tangible benefits to people. Over the past few years, great progress has been made in this respect. Today, Indonesian products can be found everywhere in China, and Indonesia has become the second largest destination of China'€™s foreign investment in ASEAN.

Suramadu Bridge, the longest cross-ocean bridge in Southeast Asia, jointly built by China and Indonesia, has greatly helped the livelihoods of the people.

The year 2015 marks the 65th anniversary of the establishment of our bilateral ties. Our two governments are stepping up bilateral cooperation in a comprehensive manner.

Not long ago, the leaders of our two countries met in Beijing and reached a series of agreements for cooperation in various areas including seas and oceans, infrastructure and agriculture. An important consideration on the Chinese side is to adapt our bilateral cooperation to the needs of Indonesians. We look forward to seeing the efforts of both sides bearing fruit.

I believe that the legislatures of our two countries shall make joint efforts to ensure a transparent and predictable legal environment for our cooperation.

What can China offer in responding to President Joko '€˜Jokowi'€™ Widodo'€™s request that China be more involved in Indonesia'€™s infrastructure development?

President Joko Widodo'€™s maritime axis policy and China'€™s 21st Century Maritime Silk Road concept initiated by President Xi Jinping share a lot of commonalities in nature and in purpose. The Chinese initiative has its focus on infrastructure, which offers new space for cooperation between our two countries.

Funding is the key to infrastructure development. Bearing this in mind, China made the initiative to establish the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank to support connectivity projects in Asia, especially in ASEAN countries.

China also allocated US$40 billion to set up the Silk Road Fund, giving priority to infrastructure projects. In addition, Indonesia can also make use of China'€™s special support of ASEAN countries including $10 billion preferential loans, the China-ASEAN Investment Cooperation Fund, the China-ASEAN Maritime Cooperation Fund and the China-Indonesia Maritime Cooperation Fund.

Chinese enterprises have accumulated a lot of experience, up-to-date technologies and a pool of talent in infrastructure construction.

How will you convince the region that China'€™s development does not pose a threat to peace and security?

The Chinese people are proud of the tremendous progress we have made over the past three decades.

However, we are keenly aware that there are still many challenges on the way, including unbalanced economic development and serious environmental pollution. At the same time, by the UN poverty standard of $1.25 per day, there are still nearly 200 million Chinese people living below the line.

Therefore, for quite a long time, China will retain its focus on development to realize '€œthe Chinese dream'€ put forth by President Xi Jinping.

The aim is to have every child educated, every laborer properly paid, every sick person treated, every elderly person cared for and each family with a decent place to live.

To achieve that, China needs not only a stable domestic environment, but also a peaceful international environment, especially its neighborhood environment.

Over the past two decades, Asia has remained peaceful, stable and prosperous on the whole.

For this, China has played an important role. China is now the largest trading partner for most of the countries in Asia, contributing more than half of the economic growth in this region, and the investment from China to other countries is increasing year by year.

China was poor and weak in the past and it suffered a great deal at the hands of the foreign powers, which also added to the chaos of the region.

It'€™s natural that with the growth of the country, China'€™s national defense will be gradually strengthened. But China follows a constitutionally stipulated national defense policy with a defensive nature.

At the same time, China'€™s military forces have started to participate in more and more international peace-keeping missions.

Although the truth proves itself, China needs to better present its own opinions and ideas to clear up misunderstandings and make other countries less anxious or even dubious.

Indonesia has been active in pursuing efforts to ease tensions in the South China Sea dispute and would also like to see China'€™s good intentions in the realizing a settlement, such as in the completion of the Code of Conduct [CoC]. What'€™s your comment on that?

For China, the continued peace and stability of the South China Sea is critical.

China is now working closely with ASEAN countries in moving ahead the DOC process and having consultations on how to reach consensus on the core issue of the CoC as soon as possible. Premier Li Keqiang, in his speech at the 17th China-ASEAN Leaders Summit last month, clearly expressed China'€™s willingness and commitment in this regard.

China and ASEAN countries have identified a '€œdual track approach'€ in handling the South China Sea issue, outlining the ideas that specific disputes be addressed by sovereign countries directly concerned through negotiation and consultation and that peace and stability in the South China Sea be jointly upheld by China and ASEAN countries.