The relationship between the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and China was one of the most dynamic and progressive in the world since the two sides established a dialogue partnership 15 years ago, Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo told Xinhua.

 

In an interview at the Malacanang Presidential Palace with Xinhua and other Chinese media, Arroyo said she was excited and greatly honored to be visiting China later this month to participate in the celebration of the establishment of the dialogue partnership between ASEAN and China in China's southwestern city of Nanning.

 

Arroyo said that over the past 15 years, the cooperation between ASEAN and China had expanded from involving only economic and trade relations to including regional political security and development.

 

"I hope that in the next 15 years, we can move forward even beyond that and that we can promote the ASEAN-China partnership by promoting confidence-building measures, intensifying interactions, and allocating more resources for building relations for cooperation and mutual benefit," she said.

 

Arroyo said all ASEAN member countries and China had agreed to fully implement a free trade agreement by 2010, and they had already begun implementing many agreements ahead of time as an "early harvest program" by reducing and eliminating trade tariffs on many products.

 

She said ASEAN enthusiastically welcomed the expansion of trade relations with China "because it lessens our traditional dependence on other markets like the United States and Europe.

 

"For example, the Philippines has been able to establish a new market for its electronics, which is our No. 1 export market. We developed our relations with China just when the US market was slowing down and China has become our biggest electronic market," said the president.

 

When asked about what ASEAN was doing to promote East Asia cooperation and about her view on the role and function of China-ASEAN relations in such cooperation, Arroyo said the Philippines, as the country currently acting as the chair of ASEAN this year, would host the 12th ASEAN Summit and the 2nd East Asia Summit in Cebu in December.

 

All ASEAN countries will be involved in the East Asia Summit and "we are the one in the ASEAN who initiated the East Asian dialogue," said Arroyo. "And because China is very important for all of the countries in the East Asian Summit, the relationship between ASEAN and China will play an important role."

 

On China's role in Asia-Pacific region, Arroyo said as far as the Philippines was concerned, the development of China was an opportunity.

 

"China has given us a very good market, as I mentioned (for example with) what happened for electronics."

 

Further commenting on the current relationship between her country and China, Arroyo described it as "really an all-time high relationship" which has become "more confident, mature, comprehensive and substantive".

 

"We should further deepen our relationship and make it a more comprehensive relationship, because it involves not only trade, security, and many other confidence building measures. We should implement more substantive and concrete projects," she added.

 

Arroyo said the two nations could deepen their relations in the fields of infrastructure, agriculture, science and technology, culture, education, and health and sanitation, and extended the invitation to China to make investments in the fields of mining and housing in the Philippines.

 

"What will be our relationship 15 years from today? With an improved economy, less poverty and more prosperity, with the world safer and more secure, let's forge the vision of what the future will be like in the next generation," she said. "These will be the subjects of our meetings in Nanning and then in Cebu."

 

(Xinhua News Agency October 25, 2006)