China will actively help to resolve international conflicts, diplomat says

China will actively participate in settling international conflicts and improve mechanisms to resolve them, a Chinese diplomat has said, stressing that the recently established mediation body in Hong Kong will help bolster the international rule of law.

Speaking separately at the Global Prosperity Summit in Hong Kong on Tuesday, local political heavyweight Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee proposed establishing an Apec think tank council to foster collaboration ahead of a meeting of the bloc’s economic leaders in neighbouring Shenzhen later this year.

Delivering the keynote address at the summit, Ambassador Han Zhiqiang, vice-president of the semi-official China Public Diplomacy Association, pointed to last week’s talks between Chinese President Xi Jinping and his US counterpart Donald Trump in Beijing.

“The two presidents … have reached important common understanding on maintaining stable economic and trade ties, expanding practical cooperation in all fields and handling mutual concerns in a proper manner,” Han said.

The three-day summit marked the first visit by a US president to China in nearly a decade and saw the two leaders agree to build a “constructive, strategically stable relationship” – a new term to define the framework of ties between the two countries.

The China Public Diplomacy Association is a non-profit organisation that promotes the country’s public diplomacy and international exchanges.