Surrounded by other major powers such as India, Russia and Japan, it is China's geopolitical interest to establish a sound long-term relationship with its Southeast Asian neighbours, a Chinese academic said in Kuala Lumpur today..

"Geopolitically, China is surrounded by major powers such as Japan, Russia and India as neighbours. Traditionally, only those in southeastern areas like Asean nations pose no threat to China," Prof Lu Jianren of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences said.

Thus, it would be to China's interest to maintain a good relationship with these countries, he added in his presentation at "The prospects and challenges of China-Asean relations" forum held at Malaysia's Institute of Diplomacy and Foreign Relations this morning.

The academic revealed that China has two important foreign relations strategies one, in dealing with the 'great powers' such as the United States, Japan and Russia and another on its relations with surrounding neighbours such as the Southeast Asian countries, represented by Asean.

"China's policy is to develop sound relations with all," he said.

Lu noted that while Sino-US relationship is considered the most important in its foreign strategy, Asean also occupies a "very important" position.

According to the academic, Asean with a population of more than 500 million and gross domestic product of about US$700 billion (RM2.66 trillion) is one of China's most important trading partners. It is, in fact, China's fifth largest trading partner.

Opportunities available

Despite the competition in the export market, there are opportunities for China-Asean cooperation in other trade areas, he said.

Among others, China still needs the natural resources such as petroleum and other raw materials to supply its growing labour-intensive industries.

Furthermore, Lu highlighted that Asean and China share many identical social values and views on human rights and democracy.

He said that Asean sympathises with China on issues with regards to the US-Japan cooperation and its stand on Taiwan.

Meanwhile, China respects the policy of non-interference into other countries' domestic affairs, among others, as practised by Asean.

"Asean and China are good friends," he stressed.