Beijing Xiangshan Forum underscores dialogue, cooperation for Asian security

Asian security has emerged as a key focus at the 13th Beijing Xiangshan Forum, with attendees from various countries and regions stressing dialogue, mutual understanding and cooperation as the foundation for sustainable regional stability.

The forum, a key platform for international security and defense dialogue, was held in the Chinese capital from Tuesday to Thursday, under the theme of "Build Consensus on Stability, Advance Security Governance Together."

In recent years, security dynamics in Asia have drawn growing attention. A major consensus at the forum is the need to extend mutual political trust into multi-layered dialogue mechanisms to shape the region's long-term trajectory.

Former Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama underscored that Asia's development has been achieved through cooperation rather than confrontation.

"Asia has achieved its development through cooperation rather than confrontation. To maintain peace and stability in Asia, we need to continue multilateral, multi-layered dialogue, including not only dialogue among governments but also military crisis management mechanisms and people-to-people exchange. I believe that dialogue rather than confrontation, and cooperation rather than division, is the path Asia should follow," he said at the forum.

Addressing the diverse security concerns of Asian countries, experts highlighted the importance of enhancing mutual understanding and identifying shared interests to achieve common security.

Shaftdean Lufty, senior director of Comprehensive Security at the Malaysian Institute of Defense and Security, stressed the value of open and personal communication.

"It's like having some sort of personal touch. I would bring this analogy of having a good friend that you can have good communication to interact and in order to get the better understanding among each other," said Lufty.

Duong Quy Nam, director of Vietnam's Institute for Defense International Relations, emphasized that true security cannot come at others' expense.

"We believe that the security of one country should not build upon the insecurity of another. Sustainable security must be built through dialogue, thus respect for each other's legitimate interests and international law," said Nam.

Beijing Xiangshan Forum underscores dialogue, cooperation for Asian security

The APEC Young Entrepreneurs Conference opened in Hangzhou, east China's Zhejiang Province on Wednesday, bringing together about 200 young entrepreneurs, investors and representatives from APEC economies to exchange views on topics such as AI, low-cost entrepreneurship and digital trade.

As the host of APEC 2026, China will hold the 33rd Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Economic Leaders' Meeting in the tech hub of Shenzhen City in south China's Guandong Province on Nov. 18 and 19, accompanied by an APEC CEO Summit and a joint ministerial meeting of foreign and trade ministers.

The current young entrepreneurs conference is a signature youth-focused event organized by China as the host of APEC 2026. Through thematic discussions, entrepreneurship workshops and investment matchmaking events, the conference aims to build a platform for young entrepreneurs from different economies to share experience, exchange ideas and explore cooperation opportunities.

"Young entrepreneurs have different challenges and we need to speak about challenges. Some entrepreneurs have experience. So we can speak about this experience in order to avoid committing mistakes now, for example. So this is a very good opportunity to exchange ideas," said Mr. Carlos Obando, Program Director of APEC's Steering Committee on Economic and Technical Cooperation (SCE).

Against the backdrop of accelerating development of new technologies such as artificial intelligence, how young entrepreneurs can link resources and share experience across regions has also become a key focus of discussion at the conference.

"We hope that through this sharing session, we can bring some experience and reference to everyone. At this conference, we have actually connected with some interesting overseas young entrepreneurs and had some exchanges with them," said Li Jiahe, head of the Liangzhu Digital Habitat Bay, an AI industry incubation platform in Hangzhou.

Participating representatives will also carry out city visits and inspections of the innovation and entrepreneurship environment in Hangzhou and Guangzhou City of Guangdong to further deepen exchanges and expand pragmatic cooperation.

APEC Young Entrepreneurs Conference held in east China's Hangzhou