On April 24, 2017 local time, Foreign Minister Wang Yi attended the 1st Ministerial Conference of the Ancient Civilizations Forum in Athens, Greek and delivered a speech entitled Generate New Energy of the Ancient Civilizations, Co-build a Community of Common Destiny.
Wang Yi said that today, the representatives from ancient civilizations with long-standing histories in the world gathered together to jointly discuss the beneficial enlightenment that original civilizations have brought to our contemporary society, so as to propel and generate fresh vitality for ancient civilizations and traditions in the new era. The history will witness the practical significance and profound impacts of the forum.
Wang Yi said that we are gathered with the intention to inject new momentum for the revitalization of all nations. At present, all countries are facing formidable tasks to promote development and realize revitalization, and therefore it is need to extract essence and absorb nutrition from our traditional cultures and carry forward humanistic qualities and cultural spirit of everlasting charm and contemporary values that have developed across time and space, so as to provide driving force and benefits for the state governance and administration of all countries.
We are gathered to explore new answers for world peaceful development. In the face of sluggish global economic recovery and continuously emerging regional hot issues, terrorism and other challenges, ancient civilizations that have existed for several millennia are precious mines of wisdom to overcome difficulties and of priceless experience in solving world problems. We are expected to draw lessons from the rich philosophical thoughts, massive humanistic spirit and noble moral concepts existing in the ancient civilizations to help us better address those major issues concerning the future of our world and all mankind.
We are gathered to open up a new path for the progress of human civilization. The history of human development is a history of multicultural co-existence and joint development. For thousands of years, major original human civilizations attract and shine upon each other, jointly promoting human development. We are gathered to break the old tone of the clash between civilizations and play a new movement of civilized dialogue, fully promoting the continuous progress of human civilizations in the right direction in this new century.
Wang Yi pointed out that China's civilization with a 5000-year history has made great contribution to the development of human society. Harmony, a manifestation of the general spirit of Chinese civilization, represents an ideal state that the Chinese nation has been unremittingly pursuing and has been integrated into each and every aspect of China's domestic and foreign policies: emphasizing "harmony is most precious" and "harmony without uniformity" in ideological governance, highlighting people-orientation and "governing by virtue" in state governance, and pursuing "convincing by virtue" and benevolence and good-neighborliness in foreign relations. Hegemony is against China's traditions, so is expansion. The Chinese civilization with harmony as its essence is accompanied by China's development and growth, and decides the direction of China's progress in the future. The other day I visited a museum in Europe. There was a pavilion displaying a substantial number of weapons, but none of them was from China. The other pavilion exhibited numerous cultural relics, the majority of which were from China, in particular porcelain. Back to 600 or 700 years ago, China carried out international exchanges through the Silk Road, bringing peace, trade and cultural exchanges to all countries.
Wang Yi said that the international community now is more closely linked today than ever, all countries mutually affecting each other and sharing a common fate. On one hand, we are facing with great opportunities to create a new glorious age in human history; on the other hand, we are confronted with severe challenges that achievements of human civilization are being eroded. Early this year, President Xi Jinping delivered a key speech in the Palace of Nations in Geneva, raising the concept of a common destiny for all humankind to achieve win-win sharing. Based on its historical and cultural traditions and its perception of the development trend in today's world, China puts forward the proposal targeting at the issue – where is the world heading? It has received great attention and wide praise from all parties.
Wang Yi stressed that we advocate taking the Ancient Civilizations Forum as an opportunity to promote exchanges and mutual learning among civilizations, making concerted efforts to the lofty goal of building a community of common destiny for all mankind.
First, shoulder our responsibility for cultural inheritance to advocate civilization, inclusiveness and common progress. As inheritors of ancient civilizations, we should erect and maintain cultural confidence and advance our own traditional culture through inheritance and innovation, revitalizing ancient civilizations in the new era. Civilizations are of no good or bad and each of them deserves to be cherished. We not only need to carry forward our own civilizations, but protect and promote diversity of civilizations. The social system and development path chosen by a country are important parts of its civilization, which should be understood and respected by all sides.
Second, leverage dialogue as a bridge to maintain international peace and stability. Civilization dialogue is the crucial pillar of safeguarding world peace and regional stability. China has always advocated dialogues and consultations for conflicts and disagreements and opposed to resort to the use or threat of force at every turn. As the global representatives of original ancient civilizations, we should consciously call for civilization dialogues and interactions, reject civilization conflicts and exclusion, rise above the differences and prejudice toward social systems and ideology, enhance mutual understanding and trust among people of all countries, and channel all sides to solve international disputes and hot issues through dialogues and negotiations, playing a constructive role in promoting peace and talks in international and regional affairs.
Third, take cooperation as the driving force to promote world development. Cooperation and integration among different civilizations are important driving forces to enhance the evolution of human society. Facing complex evolution of world situation and increasing global challenges, we need to join hands to address issues. Next month, China will host the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation. The forum will carry the historical long-cherished wish to achieve common prosperity of countries along the Silk Road and deliver a message that China is willing to work with other countries to achieve win-win results. Historically, the Silk Road was the artery of exchanges between the Eastern and Western civilizations. Nowadays, the "Belt and Road" is becoming the arena of mutual learning between civilizations of the relevant countries, even around the world. We believe that the forum will write a new chapter for exchanges and cooperation of human civilizations.
Wang Yi noted that every four years, Olympic flame is lighted in Athens and then sent to the world, delivering peace and friendship. Today, our ten original ancient civilizations are gathered here to set up a new relay journey of civilization flame. Let us make joint efforts to eliminate confrontation through dialogues, address disputes through communications, and make ancient civilizations more splendid in the modern world.
President Prokopis Pavlopoulos of Greece attended and addressed the conference. The "Ancient Civilization Forum" was jointly initiated by Greece and China. Ministers of states and senior officials of Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Italy, India, Mexico, Peru and Bolivia attended the conference. The conference published the Ancient Civilization Forum--Athens Declaration.