Your Excellency President Nikos Christodoulides,

Distinguished Guests,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Kalispera sas! Today we are gathered here to celebrate the 74th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China. On behalf of the Chinese embassy in Cyprus, I would like to extend warm welcome and heartfelt thanks to all distinguished guests!

Over the past 74 years, the Chinese people, under the leadership of the Communist Party of China, have opened a path of Chinese modernization, and created two miracles of rapid economic development and long-term social stability.

In the past decade, the Chinese economy has grown at an average annual rate of 6.2%. In the past three years, it has grown at 4.5%, which is 2.5 percentage points higher than the global average. China has won the world’ biggest ever battle against poverty. We have lifted 12.37 million people out of poverty every year, amounting to the population of a medium-sized country.

China has joined the ranks of the world’s innovators and continued to make breakthroughs in key technologies. Our development is now guided by the new development philosophy, that is innovative, coordinated, green and open development for all. We are also working to create a new development pattern.

In this process, the Chinese people, who have a strong sense of independence, self-reliance, openness and cooperation, will prevail over all challenges and create miracles of Chinese modernization.

China’s development and rise are irreversible!

The world today is undergoing major changes unseen in a century, and the human society is facing multiple challenges. In this context, China has taken an open approach, stepped up cooperation with other countries to explore the way forward, and worked to build a human community with a shared future.

President Xi Jinping has put forward the Belt and Road Initiative, the Global Development Initiative, the Global Security Initiative, and the Global Civilization Initiative. The expectation is that countries around the world will bear in mind the future of humanity, abandon Cold War mentality or zero-sum game mentality, and work together to meet common challenges. Countries are expected to make joint efforts to build an open, inclusive, clean and beautiful world with lasting peace, universal security and common prosperity, so as to deliver benefits to all of us and our future generations.

China is committed to upholding world peace and security. We resolutely uphold the purposes and principles of the UN Charter. We are the largest contributor of peacekeepers among P5 countries and the second largest contributor to the UN’s peacekeeping assessment. We have never encroached on one single inch of another country’s territory. We have all along advocated peaceful settlement of disputes, and made utmost effort to promote reconciliation and talks. We will firmly uphold world peace and stability with our own peaceful development.

China is committed to advancing global common development. We have contributed over 30% to world economic growth, and we are a major trading partner for over 140 countries and regions. Over the past decade since the inception of the BRI, over three thousand cooperation projects have been carried out, which has driven nearly one trillion US dollars of investment and removed poverty for nearly 40 million people in BRI partner countries.

China is committed to safeguarding international equity and justice. We have all along supported true multilateralism, rejected unilateralism or protectionism, and opposed bloc politics or exclusive small circles. We have worked for the development interests of small, vulnerable and developing countries, so as to make global governance more just and equitable.

China is committed to promoting mutual learning between human civilizations. The Chinese civilization has the salient features of consistency, innovativeness, unity, inclusiveness and peace. On such basis, the Chinese side stresses equality, mutual learning, dialogue and inclusiveness between civilizations. We are ready to work with other countries to make the garden of world civilizations more colorful and lively.

Friends,

An ancient Greek proverb goes, brotherhood is stronger than any wall. This aptly captures the current state of China-Cyprus relations. Our two countries are good friends, good brothers and good partners. Equality, mutual trust, reliability and win-win are the most prominent features of our relations. China and Cyprus have all along firmly supported each other on issues concerning each other’s core interests and major concerns, and jointly safeguarded the one-China principle and the one-Cyprus principle.

We applaud the sincerity, creativity and efforts of the Cypriot government as it has actively worked for the settlement of the Cyprus problem under the framework of UN resolutions. The settlement process of the Cyprus problem should only move forward. It must never move backward.

Immediately after the Pyla incident, the Chinese side issued a statement to condemn violence. We spoke out for the Cypriot friends at the UN Security Council. This proves that when a friend is in difficulty, China never sits idly by, and when international fairness and justice face challenges, China never becomes silent.

Meanwhile, Cyprus has expressed understanding and firm support to China’s position on issues related to Taiwan and human rights. We deeply appreciate this.

This year, China and Cyprus have seen vibrant exchanges and cooperation in such fields as economy, trade, tourism, culture, and sister cities. We are so proud of such close cooperation. And we applaud every achievement made by Cyprus.

Not long ago, more than a dozen Cypriot athletes joined World University Games in Chengdu. They won one silver and two bronze medals and became very popular in China. Congratulations once again to them and to Cyprus!

Next month, China will be the Country of Honor of the Nicosia Book Fest, where we will hold a series of activities and we welcome your active participation.

China values its profound friendship with Cyprus. We look forward to further expanding the cooperation and making the China-Cyprus strategic partnership more substantive, resilient and dynamic.

Meanwhile, the Chinese side deeply appreciates and sincerely hopes that the Cypriot side will continue to play a constructive role in promoting China-EU relations.

To conclude, I would like to propose a toast:

To the 74th anniversary of the People’s Republic of China,

To even greater friendship and cooperation between our peoples,

To the bright future of unity and progress of humanity, and

To the health of all distinguished guests,

Cheers! Thank you!