Exclusive interview with Dr. AKP Mochtan, Deputy Secretary-General of ASEAN (Part 3)

“Together with the connectivity of ASEAN and 'One Belt One Road' proposed by President Xi Jinping, how do we accommodate the dreams and aspirations of both sides is more important. I would like to see the connection and juncture where dreams come together.”

Dr. AKP Mochtan, Deputy Secretary-General of ASEAN, made the remarks in an exclusive interview with People’s Daily Online during his visit to People’s Daily headquarters in Beijing on Tuesday.

Dr. Mochtan introduces ASEAN’s focal notion of connectivity, elaborating why ASEAN sets it as their priority and how important connectivity is for the people to create benefits. Just like connectivity, “One Belt One Road” is another notion China develops to create more opportunities for the people. Dr. Mochtan thinks that combining the experience and dreams of citizens both in China and ASEAN is the goal of boiling down the two concepts, and working on where dreams come together.

Dr. Mochtan also notes that the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) is a very important undertaking for ASEAN, but bringing together more than half of the population in the world is a huge task since ASEAN needs to reach agreement with 5 other countries including Japan, Korean, Australia, New Zealand and India apart from China. Dr. Mochtan believes RCEP will be a very big platform to seek for workable and practical ways to enhance economic cooperation in the region, and he also hopes negotiations on the RECP could be completed by the end of this year. 

China and ASEAN to hold special commemorative summit for the 25th anniversary of dialogue relations — Exclusive interview with Dr. AKP Mochtan, Deputy Secretary-General of ASEAN (Part 1)

Deputy Secretary-General of ASEAN calls for peaceful settlement of territorial disputes in the SCS — Exclusive interview with Dr. AKP Mochtan, Deputy Secretary-General of ASEAN (Part 2)