Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao attended the 11th China-ASEAN summit
(10+1) which opened in Singapore on Tuesday.
The "10+1" meeting is a mechanism designed to strengthen
dialogue and communications, discuss cooperation, and promote
peace, stability and prosperity in the region.
China and ASEAN, friendly neighbors and partners, have been
deepening their relations in recent years. The two sides are
cooperating more closely in the political, economic, social and
cultural areas, and consistently supporting each other in
international affairs.
The ASEAN-China dialogue relations were launched in 1991. China
became ASEAN's full dialogue partner in 1996. The two sides
established the strategic partnership for peace and prosperity in
2003. Recent years have witnessed the rapid and comprehensive
growth in ASEAN-China relations, yielding fruitful results through
extensive and in-depth exchanges and cooperation between the two
sides in political, economic, trade, social, cultural and other
fields.
China is the fourth biggest trade partner of ASEAN, while ASEAN
the fifth of China.
The bilateral trade volume between China and ASEAN had amounted
to 160.8 billion U.S. dollars by the year of 2006, with a year-on-
year increase of 23.4 percent.
Chinese Assistant Foreign Minister He Yafei said the bilateral
trade volume may top 190 billion U.S. dollars this year.
(Xinhua News Agency November 20, 2007)
