Chinese President Xi Jinping (right) meets with Singaporean President Halimah Yacob at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on May 14.

On May 14, Chinese President Xi Jinping met with President Halimah Yacob of Singapore at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.

Xi pointed out that Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong had just attended opening ceremonies of the second Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation and the 2019 International Horticultural Exhibition in Beijing and that Madame President was in China for the Conference on Dialogue of Asian Civilizations (CDAC), which ideally showcased the close relationship between China and Singapore. As reciprocal development opportunities, China and Singapore have marched forward hand in hand for a long time and enjoyed extensive converging interests. The two countries should maintain the tradition of high-level exchange and provide strategic guidance for the development of bilateral relations. The Chinese nation has a tradition of inheritance and innovation. Joint construction of the Belt and Road Initiative has been a process of inclusiveness and friendship as well as the biggest current development opportunity for China-Singapore relations. Both sides should forge high-quality joint construction of the Belt and Road Initiative into a new business card for China-Singapore cooperation and make good and full use of the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor and third-party market cooperation to produce results as early as possible. Both sides should firmly support economic globalization and multilateralism, promote unity among Asian countries, focus on cooperation and leverage the CDAC as an opportunity to jointly make Asia a beautiful home. “Our circle of friends will become larger and larger over the process of building a multi-polar world,”stressed the Chinese president.

Halimah Yacob congratulated Xi on the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China and opined that it is the right time for China to organize the CDAC, which is conducive to exploring better ways to benefit people around the world. Singapore-China relations are enjoying positive development, and major bilateral cooperation projects have become models for mutually beneficial cooperation between countries. Singapore has firmly supported the Belt and Road Initiative from the very beginning and stands ready to join China in deepening exchange and cooperation in economics, trade and peopleto-people and cultural engagement to benefit the two peoples as well as jointly upholding the rules-based multilateral trading system which is of vital importance to various countries, especially small and medium-sized countries.