Xiao Jie, vice-chairman of the Standing Committee of China's National People's Congress, attended and addressed the opening ceremony of the Second China-Indian Ocean Region Forum on Development Cooperation in Kunming, capital city of Southwest China's Yunnan province, on Dec 8.

He noted that the implementation of the United Nations (UN) 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021-30) program shows clear signs of slowing down due to the current complicated and turbulent international situation and a weak global economic recovery.  

Keeping up with the trend of the times, China proposed the Belt and Road Initiative, the Global Development Initiative, the Global Security Initiative and the Global Civilization Initiative, he said.

Facing the common tasks of post-epidemic economic recovery and sustainable development, China and countries in the Indian Ocean region are natural partners in promoting blue cooperation, he noted, calling for greater efforts to strengthen communication of ideas, deepen practical cooperation and jointly boost blue development in a bid to advance the building of a maritime community with a shared future.

He also met with heads of delegations of participant countries, including Vice-President of the Maldives Hussain Mohamed Latheef, on the sidelines of the forum.

Themed on "Boosting Sustainable Blue Economy to Build Together a Maritime Community with a Shared Future", the forum was co-hosted by the China International Development Cooperation Agency and the Yunnan provincial government.