|HT|
Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday told the Association of Southeast Asian Nations’ (Asean) leaders that Beijing would not “bully” its smaller regional neighbour, as he announced the establishment of a “comprehensive strategic partnership” with the 10-country bloc. China would never seek hegemony nor take advantage of its size to coerce smaller countries, and would work with Asean to eliminate “interference”, Xi, was quoted by Chinese official media as saying amid rising tension with a number of littoral Asean states over the South China Sea.
“China was, is, and will always be a good neighbour, a good friend, and a good partner of Asean,” Xi said.
Xi was chairing the Special Summit to Commemorate the 30th Anniversary of China-Asean Dialogue Relations via video link on Monday morning.
The group comprises Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte struck an angry note at the regional summit when he said that he “abhors” a recent altercation with Chinese ships in the South China Sea (SCS) and said the rule of law was the only way out of problems. “We abhor the recent event. This does not speak well of the relations between our nations,” Duterte said.
(Except for the headline and the pictorial description, this story has not been edited by THE DEN staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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