The China-ASEAN Economic and Trade Ministers' Meeting was held in Manila. The two sides reached a consensus on deepening cooperation.

China News Service, Manila, September 22 (Reporter Zhou Jing) The 25th China-ASEAN Economic and Trade Ministers' Meeting was held on the 21st in Manila, the capital of the Philippines, which holds the rotating chairmanship of ASEAN. The meeting had an in-depth exchange of views on the global and regional economic situation, the development direction of China-ASEAN economic and trade cooperation, and the construction of free trade areas, and reached broad consensus.

Yan Dong, Vice Minister of the Ministry of Commerce of China, said that China and ASEAN have similar development concepts and integrated economic and trade interests. China's economic development will continue to bring "China Opportunity 2.0" to ASEAN. China is willing to continue to adhere to open cooperation with ASEAN, work together to deal with unilateralism and protectionism, and jointly expand the innovative development of digital economy and green trade investment.

ASEAN stated that China has remained ASEAN's largest trading partner for 17 consecutive years and is also ASEAN's third largest source of foreign investment. It is willing to build a closer and pragmatic economic partnership with China. ASEAN spoke highly of the positive role of the "Work Plan on Further Deepening China-ASEAN Economic and Trade Cooperation (2022-2026)" in promoting practical economic and trade cooperation between the two sides, welcomed the progress in the approval of the "China-ASEAN Free Trade Area Version 3.0 Upgrade Protocol", and looked forward to the early entry into force of the protocol.

Both sides agreed that we should continue to advance the economic integration process on the basis of existing results, promote inclusive growth, further tighten the ties of economic and trade cooperation, and jointly promote regional prosperity and development.

On September 21, the fifth ministerial meeting after the entry into force of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) was held in Manila. At the meeting, all parties had an in-depth exchange of views on the regional and global economic situation and the future development direction of RCEP, and reiterated their commitment to an open, free, fair and rules-based trade framework. All parties agreed that they should work together to deepen the implementation of the RCEP Agreement, deepen trade and investment ties among members, and continue to enhance regional economic resilience.

According to the Ministry of Commerce of China, Yan Dong attended the meeting and spoke. Yan Dong said that currently, unilateralism and protectionism are countercurrent, the world economic growth momentum is insufficient, and the uncertainty faced by the development of various economies continues to rise. All parties should adhere to multilateralism, uphold the concept of openness and inclusiveness, accelerate the RCEP expansion process, make the regional cooperation platform bigger and stronger, and actively promote the review and upgrade of the agreement to further release the potential of regional cooperation and inject stronger impetus into regional and global economic growth. (over)