Spotlight: Co-op opportunities emerge in Asia-Pacific but security concerns still linger in 2015

The general situation in the Asia-Pacific region has been stable through the year of 2015 as favorable economic and political factors keep emerging.

The region in the year of 2016 will brace for growing economic opportunities, China's bigger role and the uncertain security environment.

Inclusiveness and win-win cooperation have become the mainstream concepts in the Asia-Pacific prosperity and development in 2015. Forging inclusive economy and jointly promoting prosperity in the region was a consensus reached at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Economic Leaders' meeting in Manila, the Philippines, in November.

The sixth China-Japan-South Korea leaders' meeting was held in November in Seoul, restarting the trilateral cooperation mechanism after a three-and-half-year hiatus due to heightened regional tensions.

The resumed talks sent out positive signals for seeking common ground while reserving differences and pushing forward cooperation. It also served as a platform for solving contradictions and achieving win-win cooperation, thus enhancing the international community's confidence in the stability and development in the Asia-Pacific.

In 2015, the process of establishing free trade areas in the region has been accelerated, which has witnessed the signing and coming into force of the China-South Korean Free Trade Agreement (FTA), the China-Australia FTA and a deal sealing between China and the Association of Southeast Asia Nations (ASEAN) to upgrade their FTA, further promoting open, free trade and common prosperity in more regional countries.

The ASEAN Community, with three pillars of the Political-Security Community, the Economic Community and the Socio-Cultural Community, will be formally established on Dec. 31, 2015, a landmark in the bloc's integration process.

The ASEAN Community is a great pioneering undertaking in Asia's regional cooperation, which sets an example for and drive the economic integration, political security and social progress in a broader sense.

China's "Belt and Road" initiative, the creation of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), the International Monetary Fund's inclusion of China's currency Renminbi (RMB) in its Special Drawing Rights (SDR) basket as an international reserve currency, as well as the railway projects between China, Indonesia, Thailand and Laos have all demonstrated the favorable factors of openness, inclusiveness and win-win cooperation.

More and more positive responses to China's "Belt and Road" initiative and the operation of the AIIB will assist Asia in infrastructure investment and bring about new opportunities for economic and social development of the Asia-Pacific region and the world at large.

Despite the positive developments, it is noteworthy that factors destabilizing regional security still exist. The United States, which is continuing its strategic "pivot to Asia," is rebalancing toward the area through uniting its regional allies militarily and pushing the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) economically.

On the South China Sea issue, the United States, a non-claimant, is interfering in the region by sowing dissension and saber-rattling maneuvers. Individual claimant countries, acting as pawns for the Uncle Sam, have refused the sincere proposal from China to resolve the disputes through bilateral talks. These unstable factors, if unchecked, would eventually deteriorate into a crisis.

Meanwhile, the Japanese politics is turning further right. The cabinet of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, in its latest move, approved a record-high military budget, marking the fourth consecutive year that spending on defense has increased. Earlier, it has steamrolled through the parliament security bills which would allow the Self-Defense Forces to engage in operations overseas, in contravention of the country's pacifist constitution.

The Abe administration, persistent in its historical revisionism, has also frustrated Japan's Asian neighbors by failing to face up to the country's wartime history and colonial atrocities. The Japanese right-wing politicians are trying to revive militarism as they continue their visits to the controversial Yasukuni Shrine.

In today's world, friendly consultations, peaceful negotiations, accommodating the interests of individual countries and non-interference in internal affairs of other countries are the fundamental ways to settle disputes, solve confrontations and fend off crisis.

The international community will be fully confident of the development in the Asia-Pacific in the new year although there are inharmonious factors in the region.

It has proved that the countries and the peoples in the Asia-Pacific region constitute a community of common interests and destiny.

A new Asia-Pacific of "wide consultation, joint contribution and shared benefits" serves the interests of every country in the region and conforms to the trend of the times. Endit