China and Indonesia enjoy a long-standing friendship, and our relations took on a high-speed train last year. Last July, President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo visited China, as the first foreign head of state after the Beijing Winter Olympics. Last November, President Xi Jinping visited Indonesia, his first foreign visit after the 20th Congress of the ruling party of China. The two leaders reached an important consensus on building a China-Indonesia community with a shared future and reaffirmed the commitment to firmly support each other on issues of core interests concerning national sovereignty, security and territorial integrity, showing the strength of our bilateral ties.

This year marks the 10th anniversary of the comprehensive strategic partnership between China and Indonesia. China will further follow the consensus reached by the two leaders, implement the Five-Year Action Plan, conduct high-level four-pillar cooperation covering politics, economy, people-to-people exchanges and maritime projects, and work more on such new flagship programs as the Regional Comprehensive Economic Corridor and green industrial parks.

This January, Indonesia approved the implementation of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP). China supports setting up an RCEP secretariat at an early date and upgrading it at a proper time. China has applied to join the CPTPP and Digital Economy Partnership Agreement (DEPA). We stand ready to conclude high-standard free trade agreements with more countries and strengthen digital connectivity.

Chinese modernization features peaceful development. President Xi proposed the Global Development Initiative, the Global Security Initiative and the Global Civilization Initiative, which called for shared values of peace, development, equity, justice, democracy and freedom, and urged the seeking of common development, collective security and mutual learning between civilizations.

As a major developing country, an emerging economy with the world’s largest Muslim population, Indonesia is to realize the grand Indonesian Vision 2045. Hence, in this turbulent world, we support each other for win-win cooperation, a blessing for our two countries and the whole region.

Indonesia is this year’s rotating president of ASEAN. President Jokowi pointed out that Indonesia would maintain ASEAN centrality and unity, regional peace and political stability, and emphasized that ASEAN should not be a proxy of any party and should prevent regional competition from becoming conflict.

He committed to promoting the economy by hosting the flagship Asia-Pacific Forum, exploring cooperation in the creative and digital economy, commercial investment and infrastructure, to make ASEAN a powerhouse of regional growth, which is highly acclaimed by the international community.

Over the past decade, under the guidance of President Xi and leaders of ASEAN members, China-ASEAN relations have gotten on a fast track. China was the first to establish a strategic partnership and start free trade agreement negotiations with ASEAN, to express its support for the centrality of ASEAN in regional cooperation and its willingness to sign the Treaty on the Southeast Asian Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone.

Friends from ASEAN have told me that the China-ASEAN partnership is the most vigorous and fruitful among its peers. Today, we are each other’s largest trading partner, with bilateral trade up 100-fold compared with 30 years ago. The accumulative amount of our bilateral direct investment exceeds US$310 billion.

Last year, China and ASEAN established a comprehensive strategic partnership. The two sides have deepened cooperation in green development, climate change, environmental protection, energy transition and the digital economy, and have worked together in implementing the Global Development Initiative and UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and in addressing risks to public health, food security, energy security and the financial sector.

Ten years ago, the ASEAN Summit started the RCEP negotiations. Today, the RCEP comes into force in 14 countries, forming the largest free trade area. The past decade reflects the essence of the China-ASEAN relationship, that is, we are good neighbors and close partners sharing weal and woe.

China firmly supports ASEAN as a driver of regional cooperation and appreciates Indonesia’s emphasis that the ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific is neither attached to nor targeted at any party. We will step up support for ASEAN integration and welcome ASEAN to formulate its post-2025 Community Vision.

As a valuable treasure, the ASEAN model embodies the oriental philosophy of how countries properly handle differences and disagreements. In the 1950s, the five principles of peaceful coexistence, initiated by China and Indonesia, ensured that countries, big or small, strong or weak, are entitled to peace.

In the past 50 years, regional countries have explored an ASEAN model based on the principles of mutual respect, consultation and accommodating the comfort levels of all parties. Positive thinking on common, cooperative and comprehensive security has been fostered, laying a solid foundation for stability in Asia.

At present, globalization faces headwinds, and voices for decoupling are growing louder. We should uphold true regional cooperation that unites countries within the region and remains open to those outside, and reject the fake one that keeps certain countries out and targets certain sides. We appreciate diversity among members, develop networks of friends worldwide with an open mindset, and reject any attempt to split the region into confrontational or exclusive groups.

We will advance negotiations on the new round of the China-ASEAN FTA upgrade, pursue synergies between Hainan Free Trade Port, Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and ASEAN development strategies, and support Hong Kong and Macao in more extensive cooperation with ASEAN members.

This year marks the 10th anniversary of the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road. Over the decade, the synergies between the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and Indonesia’s global maritime fulcrum have borne remarkable fruits. The Jakarta-Bandung High-Speed Railway has finished a successful trial operation. Notable progress has been made in the “two countries, twin parks” program. Our cooperation in the digital economy, green development and maritime projects has many highlights.

China has actively supported upgrading Indonesian industries. Our vaccine cooperation has grown from donation to coproduction and tech transfer. With China’s support, Indonesia became the first country in Southeast Asia to master the mRNA vaccine production tech.

At Indonesia Morowali Industrial Park (IMIP), one Chinese tech professional teaches know-how to five to 10 Indonesian employees. Currently, the IMIP has created nearly 80,000 local jobs and paid $2.4 billion in tax to the Indonesian government.

Chinese enterprises actively fulfill their social responsibilities. Over 10,000 projects invested in by Chinese enterprises have created 250,000 local jobs. Some 91 percent of the Chinese-invested enterprises help local employees master skills through tech transfer, and 50 percent send Indonesian employees to China to receive training.

This year, China will hold the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation. We welcome Indonesia in jointly building the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor to facilitate trade within the region. We are willing to import more quality goods from Indonesia and encourage more Chinese enterprises to invest here.

We are ready to strengthen cooperation in a low-carbon, circular and green economy. We stand ready to explore maritime economic cooperation, for example, marine products processing, tech support, environmental protection and port construction. And we are willing to advance synergies between the BRI, the Global Development Initiative and Indo-Pacific Outlook, to contribute more to regional poverty reduction and people-to-people ties.

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The writer is the deputy director general of the China Center for Contemporary World Studies (CCCWS). The article is abridged from his keynote speech at a round-table discussion jointly held by the CCCWS and the Foreign Policy Community of Indonesia last week.