MANILA, Aug. 7 -- Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Monday called on all countries in East Asia to strengthen security cooperation, especially on non-traditional security issues like terrorism, transnational crimes and natural disasters.
He made the remarks while attending a series of meetings of the ministers with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), which are being held in the Philippine capital city of Manila, including East Asia Summit (EAS) and ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF).
Wang said communication between countries on security issues is very important as it can remove misunderstanding and misjudgment whiling enhancing mutual trust.
He mentioned that China issued a white paper on its policies on Asia-Pacific security cooperation this January, which showed China's determination to safeguard regional peace and stability.
Current regional security architecture, which is composed of EAS, ARF, ASEAN Defense Ministers' Meeting-Plus and other coordinating mechanism should be improved and updated to make it more effective, Wang noted.
Taking the war against extremists in the southern Philippine city of Marawi as an example, Wang called for a united voice to support Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, help the Philippines and back its people in order to end the conflicts as soon as possible.
China has provided the Philippine government with a batch of emergency assistance as requested and hope people in Marawi, Mindanao to have peaceful lives again soon, Wang added.
The foreign minister also noted that China is willing to offer help in rehabilitation of war-torn Marawi.