A China Pavilion officially opened on Monday at the 16th Conference of the Parties (COP16) to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, highlighting China's decades-long efforts and achievements in combating desertification.
Covering more than 600 square meters, the China Pavilion is the second-largest national pavilion at the event. Its exhibition, themed "Cross-Century Green Great Wall, China's Restoration in Action," showcases the nation's battle against desertification, particularly through the Three-North Shelter Forest Program, a major national initiative aimed at reversing land desertification in its north, northwest and northeast regions by surrounding desert lands with trees and vegetation.
Addressing the opening ceremony, UNCCD Deputy Executive Secretary Andrea Meza Murillo praised China's significant contributions to curbing its desertification, including controlling the expansion of the Taklimakan Desert in west China, the world's second-largest shifting sand desert.
She emphasized that effective policies, community and local government involvement, as well as innovation and technology, are key components of China's success.
"The example of what the government of China is doing in restoring land, in combating desertification, means a lot to humanity. It is inspiring and remarkable to see that China has already achieved land degradation neutrality ahead of time by restoring 50 percent of curable degraded sandy land. This is amazing. It's clear that we need good leadership, good policies, engagement of the society, engagement of national governments. It's really good to see this engagement, and of course, innovation is technology, it's traditional knowledge, and this is what we are seeing in the China experience," said Murillo.
COP16, held from Dec. 2 to 13 under the theme "Our Land. Our Future," is the largest UN land-focused conference to date and the first UNCCD COP in the Middle East and North Africa.
China Pavilion opens at UN conference on desertification held in Riyadh
China and Japan should work together to promote stable, lasting bilateral relations, and to uphold regional and international peace and stability, said China's top diplomat Wang Yi in a video speech at the 20th Beijing-Tokyo Forum on Wednesday.
Wang, a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and director of the Office of the Central Commission for Foreign Affairs, noted that China and Japan have an exchange history of more than 2,000 years, and that it has been over 50 years since the normalization of diplomatic relations between the two countries.
A China-Japan relationship with the right development direction is not only of great and positive significance to both countries and their peoples, but also to the peace and development of the region and the world, he said. Both sides should be guided by the important consensus reached by the leaders of the two countries, adhere to the original aspirations of relations, follow the right path, seek common ground, and coordinate actions, all with the aim of promoting stable, lasting bilateral relations, he said. Noting that the two sides should understand the correct positioning of bilateral relations, Wang said China has always regarded Japan as an important cooperation partner, and hopes that Japan can view China's development objectively and rationally.
It is hoped that Japan will work with China to follow the correct positioning of the comprehensive advancement of the strategic, mutually beneficial relations between China and Japan, and implement the important consensus that the two countries should be cooperative partners and should not pose a threat to each other, he said.
The two sides should maintain the political foundations of bilateral relations. The four political documents between China and Japan have laid the political and legal foundations for bilateral relations, and they should not be blurred, retrogressed or undermined, Wang said.
China and Japan need to promote an open strategy of mutual benefits. Both sides should cherish their cooperation space and common interests that have already been established, and work together to maintain the stability and smooth operations of the global free trade system and industrial and supply chains, he said. Wang also called on the two countries to uphold regional and international peace and stability. In the face of rising unilateralism and protectionism, China and Japan need to work in tandem to safeguard Asian unity and cooperation to prevent external forces from fomenting confrontation, he said.
It is hoped that the Beijing-Tokyo Forum will continue to promote candid exchange, build consensus, provide suggestions for China-Japan relations, and make new contributions to the development of China-Japan relations that meet the requirements of the new era, he said.
Launched in 2005, the Beijing-Tokyo Forum is an annual event held alternately in Beijing and Tokyo. The forum is a high-level, large-scale, interactive exchange platform between the two countries.
China's top diplomat calls for joint efforts to promote stable, lasting China-Japan ties
