FOREIGN Minister Wang Yi warned against efforts to bypass ASEAN with new regional cooperation channels evening at the virtual East Asia Summit of foreign ministers from ASEAN, Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand, Russia, South Korea and the US, reported Hong Kong's South china Morning Post.
Mr Wang also took aim at what he said was 'groundless' criticism and 'platitudes' from the US and Japan over China's human rights record, issues, he said, Association of Southeast Asian Nations members had avoided.
He also said multilateralism was the 'correct path' to resolving complicated problems in the world, but the region should 'be wary of all kinds of pseudo-multilateralism and, in particular, resist the use of multilateralism to foment bloc confrontation'.
'ASEAN's centrality in regional cooperation should not be hollowed out, and the existing mature regional cooperation mechanisms should not be set up in another way,' he said.
SeaNews Turkey
Mr Wang also took aim at what he said was 'groundless' criticism and 'platitudes' from the US and Japan over China's human rights record, issues, he said, Association of Southeast Asian Nations members had avoided.
He also said multilateralism was the 'correct path' to resolving complicated problems in the world, but the region should 'be wary of all kinds of pseudo-multilateralism and, in particular, resist the use of multilateralism to foment bloc confrontation'.
'ASEAN's centrality in regional cooperation should not be hollowed out, and the existing mature regional cooperation mechanisms should not be set up in another way,' he said.
SeaNews Turkey