By Imran Nasir

ISLAMABAD (TSAT) - China Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Tuesday said his country stood with the people of Kashmir and Palestine, who are under occupation for the last seven decades.

Addressing the opening ceremony of the 48th Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Foreign Ministers' Meeting in Islamabad, Wang said It gives him great pleasure to attend and address the opening ceremony of the OIC Foreign Ministers' Meeting. 

“This is the first time for the Chinese Foreign Minister to attend the OIC Foreign Ministers' Meeting. It fully demonstrates the sincere desire of China and the Islamic world to strengthen exchanges and cooperation and will surely push bilateral relations to a new level,” Wang said, according to his speech transcript issued by the information ministry. 

While mentioning China's long relations with the Muslim world, Wang said the Chinese civilization and the Islamic civilization are ancient civilizations of great influence in the world. 

“Our exchanges have stood the test of the changing international landscape for a thousand years and enjoy a profound history and solid public support. Friendship is the mainstream of our relations, equality is the basis for our interactions and win-win cooperation is the goal of our cooperation,” he added.

Chinese top diplomate said that over the years, they have always respected and trusted each other and supported each other's core concerns.

 “We will never forget that Algeria and other countries jointly submitted a resolution, and nearly 30 Islamic countries firmly supported it, to help China restore its legal status in the UN. Similarly, China has never hesitated or been absent in its support for the Palestinian issue, which is of the greatest concern to the Islamic world,” he recalled the Muslim countries’ support to China in 1971.

Wang said China is investing over $400 billion in nearly 600 projects in 54 Muslim countries under the BRI,

“We have always adhered to solidarity and mutual assistance to achieve common development. After the outbreak, Islamic countries immediately offered China valuable support, and China also provided 1.3 billion doses of vaccines and a large amount of anti-epidemic supplies to 50 Islamic countries in a timely manner,” he briefed the OIC foreign ministers. 

The Chinese Foreign Minister's participation for the first time as a special guest in the OIC CFM is seen as a major development.

His participation shows that Beijing wants to go closer to the Muslim world which will give them more influence and reach to market of over 1.5 billion population. 

 “Now they are joining hands on the road of development and rejuvenation. We should vigorously advocate equal-footing dialogue, exchanges, and mutual learning among civilizations, draw wisdom from each other's time-honored civilizations, and jointly resist discrimination and clash of civilizations,” said the Chinese top official. 

He added that China and the Islamic world have found a path of friendly coexistence and win-win cooperation between different civilizations, setting a good example for the practice of a new type of international relations and offering useful experience for exchanges between different countries and civilizations.

He assured the top diplomates of the Muslim world that his country want to go with them as partners of unity and cooperation. 

“We firmly support each other in safeguarding national sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity, in independently exploring development paths suited to our national conditions, and in safeguarding our legitimate development rights and interests as well as the common interests of developing countries,” he said. 

“We need to be partners in development and revitalization. China will continue to provide 300 million doses of vaccines to Islamic countries to help them build a defense of health. We will continue to synergize our development strategies. 

“With high-quality belt and Road cooperation and joint implementation of global development initiatives as the twin engines, we will consolidate traditional cooperation and foster new highlights, boost the development and revitalization of China and Islamic countries, lead the trend of South-South cooperation, and inject strong impetus to the implementation of the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development,” Wang said.

Earlier when the OIC Secretary-General, Pakistan, and Saudi Foreign Ministers spoke about the situation in Palestine and Kashmir where Israel and India were accused of committing war crimes and human rights violations, the Chinese Foreign Minister said his country support the OIC stand. 

“China will continue to stand firmly on the side of the Palestinian people and support the early convening of a more authoritative and representative international peace conference on the basis of the two-state solution so as to promote a comprehensive and just settlement of the Palestinian issue,” he said.

“On the Kashmir issue, we have once again heard the call of many Islamic friends. China shares the same aspiration,” Wang added.

He also spoke on the Afghanistan situation and said Beijing respects the choice of Afghan people. 

“China will respect the choice made by the Afghan people, support Afghanistan in achieving inclusive government and steady governance, and open a new chapter of peace and reconstruction.”

He also supports the ongoing efforts for peace and ending war between Russia and Ukraine and said Beijing supports Russia and Ukraine in continuing peace talks for the sake of ceasefire, an end to war, and peace. 

“We need to prevent humanitarian disasters and prevent the spillover of the Ukrainian crisis from affecting or harming the legitimate rights and interests of other regions and countries.”

Without naming the US and other western countries, Wang said “We should uphold exchanges and mutual learning among civilizations, oppose the theory of "the superiority of civilizations", the theory of "clash of civilizations", and the distortion and smear of non-Western civilizations.”

 “History has proved and will continue to prove that China is a sincere friend and cooperative partner of the Islamic world. China is ready to work with Islamic countries to promote a multi-polar world, democracy in international relations and diversity of human civilizations, and make unremitting efforts to build a community with a shared future for mankind,” he concluded.