The past four decades of reform and opening-up has been an extraordinary journey of advancing with the rest of the world. China achieved its development by opening-up and with the support of the world, and China has been taking concrete steps to give back by sharing its development opportunities. People from all countries are welcome to get on board the express train of China's development. The first China International Import Expo to be held this November will once again demonstrate China's resolve to further open up. President Xi Jinping emphasized that China's door will not be closed and will only open even wider. This is our solemn commitment to the international community, and we Chinese believe in keeping one's word with results-oriented actions.

The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is a concrete and momentous step by China to expand opening-up and external cooperation. With the launch of a large number of cooperation projects in less than five years, the BRI is being turned from vision into reality through concrete actions. A strong momentum of global collaboration for BRI development is emerging. We have signed BRI cooperation agreements with over ninety countries and organizations, institutionalized our industrial cooperation with more than thirty countries, and a new landscape of China's opening-up led by the BRI is taking shape.

The BRI is a great undertaking that inspires great actions. The Initiative has produced bumper "early harvests". Here let me share with you several examples.

The first example happened in the central Asian country of Uzbekistan. Out of its 30 million people, one third live in the Andijan region. Travel to Tashkent, its capital, had long been a headache for the government and local people as one had to either drive four or five days across mountain passes or transit through a third country by train. This longstanding problem was resolved when Chinese construction workers came and helped build a railway tunnel in just 900 days despite the hostile natural conditions. It is the first and so far the longest rail tunnel in central Asia. Now people in Andijan can get to Tashkent in just two hours. They hailed the Belt and Road Initiative and applauded the Chinese workers for making the journey so much easier for them.

The second example happened in Kenya, Africa. A journey from its biggest port city Mombasa to its capital Nairobi used to take over ten hours. Yet since the opening of a railway line China helped build in May 2017, the trip has been cut to five hours. The railway has carried 1.3 million passengers, and has so far this year transported 600,000 tons of cargo, equivalent to 45,000 TEUs. As an important "early-harvest" deliverable under the BRI, the railway has brought convenience to the lives of the Kenyan people and added impetus to the local economic development.

The third example is about another central Asian country, Tajikistan. Despite being a large cotton producer, the country could only process 10 percent of its output. Yet thanks to a textile joint venture it set up with China several years ago, which is the largest enterprise of its kind in central Asia, Tajikistan's cotton processing rate rose to 40 percent. The joint venture sells over nine tenths of the 100 percent cotton yarn it produces to foreign markets, becomes the country's biggest source of foreign currency earnings, and creates some 4,000 jobs. It now provides a reliable driving force for local economic growth.

Just as there are a thousand Hamlets in a thousand people's eyes, it is only natural that people may have different views about the Belt and Road Initiative. Yet more and more people have come to the view that the BRI is not a debt trap, nor a predatory quest for resources. Still less is it designed to create a closed bloc or sphere of influence. Instead, it is an initiative for peace, cooperation and openness, a platform for China to work with other countries to promote development, meet challenges and advance prosperity under the principle of pursuing friendship and upholding justice.

Ladies and gentlemen, Friends,

Many of you have been following China's development and know China's foreign policy well. As a career diplomat born in the 1960s who served in Russia, the United States, Kazakhstan and India, I have experienced many significant developments in China's diplomacy since the 80s. I witnessed the historic shifts in China's relations with the rest of the world and the growth of China's friendship and cooperation with other countries. The Chinese diplomats of my generation have direct and strong feelings about the momentous journey of China's engagement with the world in these tumultuous three decades.

In my posting in Moscow between the late 80s and early 90s, I witnessed the breakup of the Soviet Union, the end of the Cold War, and the smooth transition of China's relations with Russia. China successfully resolved the boundary issues left from history with Russia and several other former Soviet Union countries, making the 7,600-kilometer boundary a bond of peace and cooperation. China-Russia relations have enjoyed steady growth and developed into a comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination, contributing significantly to global peace and strategic stability. President Putin's visit to China last month, the first after his re-election, marked a new start for China-Russia relations in the new era. Under the guidance of the Presidents of the two countries, the China-Russia relationship is at its best in history, and sets a fine example for developing a new type of relations between major countries.

Twenty years ago at the turn of the century, I was sent to work at our permanent mission to the UN in New York, and had the opportunity to observe close-up China's relations with the United States and major European countries.

China believes that as permanent members of the UN Security Council and the world's two largest economies, China and the United States have broad and important common interests. Both countries stand to gain from cooperation and lose from confrontation. Regrettably, the United States recently went ahead to start a trade war, which has harmed Chinese interests, undermined the global economy and created obstacles for China-US cooperation. China was forced to take countermeasures to safeguard its national interests and the multilateral trading regime. We hate to see such a situation, and we urge the US side to come back to reason and stop acting in a way that hurts others and brings no good to itself. President Xi Jinping has time and again stressed that for China and the US, cooperation is the only right choice, and the pursuit of win-win outcomes is the only path to a better future. This points the right direction for China-US relations, and we must stay firmly on this right course.

There are broad common interests between China and European countries. I have just returned from Premier Li Keqiang's visit to Europe and was deeply impressed by the strong wish China and Europe share for enhancing cooperation to meet common challenges. China attaches high importance to the EU's strategic status and role, and firmly supports the European integration process. It has been suggested that China has shown more support for the integration process than some European countries. The 20th China-EU Summit will be held in Beijing on Monday. I believe it will bring new impetus and vitality for China-Europe cooperation.

As Chinese Ambassador to Kazakhstan and India in the past five years, I witnessed the remarkable progress in China's neighborhood diplomacy, and have some observations about it. In a spirit of amity, sincerity, mutual benefit and inclusiveness, China has followed the principle of building friendships and partnerships with neighboring countries, and become a good neighbor, friend and partner that the neighboring countries feel they can trust.

Over the past twenty-six years since China established diplomatic ties with the central Asian countries, the two sides have lived side by side in harmony and jointly tackled difficulties like close brothers. In the early days after independence, the central Asian countries suffered hard from terrorism and extremism and were deeply troubled by conflicts, turmoil and poverty. As I remember, the first Chinese Ambassador to Tajikistan had to travel in an armored vehicle across battlefields to present his credentials. When I talked about this with former US Deputy Secretary of State Bill Burns recently, he said the then US Ambassador may have traveled in the same vehicle to present his credentials. Now conflicts have become history in the central Asian countries, and their people enjoy social stability and a happy life. One certain thing is that China played its positive part in helping make this happen.

Based on the settlement of the boundary issues and confidence-building measures along border areas, China, Russia and relevant central Asian countries established the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). Seventeen years since its birth, the SCO has grown into a model for regional cooperation with rising international influence. Cooperation under the SCO, which used to focus on the security and economic fields, has now expanded to cover people-to-people exchange and external engagement. At the recent Qingdao Summit, President Xi Jinping called for joint efforts to uphold the Shanghai Spirit and build an SCO community with a shared future. This call, warmly welcomed and endorsed by all participants, became the key political consensus of the summit and provides fresh impetus to the sustained growth of the SCO.

China and India are each other's biggest neighbors and the world's two largest developing countries. A friendly and cooperative China-India relationship is a major contribution to global stability. Despite our differences over the boundary question, not a single shot was fired at the border for over half a century. During my ambassadorship in India, China opened a new border port, through which Indian pilgrims can visit Mount Kailash and Lake Mansarover in China's Tibet Autonomous Region by air-conditioned coaches traveling at 100 kilometers per hour. Leaders of the two countries held an informal summit in Wuhan this year, marking a new starting point for the relationship. The two sides agreed to advance all-round cooperation, forge a closer partnership for development, and properly handle and manage differences. The sound interaction between the "dragon" and the "elephant" has shown the world the new prospects in China-India relations.

In my diplomatic career stretching thirty-plus years, I have visited many developing countries across Asia, Africa and Latin America. Relations with other developing countries have been the foundation of China's overall diplomacy. Guided by the principle of upholding justice while pursuing shared interests and the principle of sincerity, real results, affinity and good faith put forward by President Xi Jinping, China has been committed to strengthening unity and cooperation with other developing countries. As the largest developing country, China never fails to speak up for fellow developing countries and is always their reliable and true friend. A ministerial meeting of the China-CELAC Forum was successfully held early this year. Just a few days ago, a ministerial meeting of the China-Arab States Cooperation Forum was concluded. This September, we will hold the Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation. All these mechanisms have strongly boosted the friendship and cooperation between China andother developing countries.

Multilateralism should be upheld and upgraded and global governance improved. The high need of doing so was impressed upon me from my experience at the UN and from attending major multilateral events in recent years like the G20 Summit, the APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting and the BRICS Summit. On 11 September 2001, I witnessed in New York the massive havoc and untold grief terrorism brought on the American people. That memory is still fresh today. If there is any silver lining in this tragic event, it is that it led to stronger international cooperation against terrorism. China has been an active supporter and participant in this global effort and stands firmly against terrorism in all forms.

On global economic governance, the G20, from its Washington Summit to the Hangzhou Summit, has evolved into the widely-recognized premier platform for global economic governance. Following the principle of pursuing shared benefits through consultation and collaboration, China has played an active part in the reform and development of the global governance system, and worked to contribute Chinese ideas and resources to its reform and improvement. China is steadfast in opposing any form of protectionism and unilateralism and in upholding multilateralism, free trade and the rules-based multilateral trading regime, and has worked toward a more open, inclusive, balanced economic globalization that benefits all.

China has been actively involved in the efforts to resolve such hotspots as the Korean nuclear issue, the Iranian nuclear issue, the Syrian issue and the Afghanistan issue, exploring solutions with Chinese characteristics. China has become a major contributor to UN peacekeeping missions. The Korean Peninsula is now seeing a positive momentum with lowered tensions and significant progress in the denuclearization process. All parties concerned need to seize this opportunity and work toward the same goal. Positive steps are called for to meet the DPRK's legitimate security concerns and establish a peace mechanism on the peninsula. The Iranian nuclear issue is now at a crossroads after American withdrawal. At the just-concluded Foreign Ministers' Meeting in Vienna, State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi called for unity and cooperation among the parties concerned to safeguard the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) and the rights and interests the parties enjoy under the agreement. China is ready to work with all parties concerned to move the situation in a positive direction.

An old Chinese adage says, one could get an idea of a leopard from seeing a spot on its body. As a diplomat born in the 1960s, I have outlined in broad strokes China's foreign policy and diplomatic endeavors in recent decades based on my limited experiences. A strong thread weaving through it all is China's commitment to peaceful development and win-win cooperation. This is our unwavering principle and pursuit. Whatever progress it makes in its development, China will always strive to maintain world peace, promote global development and uphold the international order.

Ladies and gentlemen, Friends,

In his recent book Hit Refresh, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella calls for an open, pioneering and forward-looking mindset. His ideas gave me much food for thought. Our world is going through unprecedented changes and adjustments, and today's China is at a historical stage where the timeframes of its two centenary goals converge. In such an age of opportunities and challenges, we cannot afford to be stuck with outdated mentalities, attempt to reverse the wheel of history, or to relapse into the jungle rule whereby the strong prey upon the weak. Therefore, guided by the vision of building a community with a shared future, we must "hit refresh" and constantly upgrade the "operating system" of global governance to jointly usher in a brighter future for mankind.