And then, the most foudamental element for effective coordination is our people. We should always put our people first and find ways to deepen mutual understanding and friendship among our peoples. My colleague, Ambassador Wang Yusheng, has deep feelings for the people of Sri Lanka. Previously, he has worked there for over a decade. His wife passed away there. Not long ago, at an advanced age of 84, he once again returned to Sri Lanka for a symposium. He delivered his remarks on the Maritime Silk Road in the Sinhala language and has been warmly received by the audience. When he paid a visit to his late wife in the cemetery, his tears came down, but there is no bitter regrets. Very often I tell people that the Maritime Silk Road is not something newly coined out of nothing, but a legacy that carries the efforts and aspirations of several generations of diplomats and people from various sectors.

During the Silk Road Youth Touring Program organized by the Chinese Foreign Ministry last year, we have brought some foreign students studying in Nanjing to Silk Road historic sites around Jiangsu and Zhejiang Province. An Indonesian student said afterwards, although Zheng He has the world’s largest naval fleet back then, he brought to the people in Southeast Asia peace, goods, and friendship. Having seen the treasure ship with his own eyes, he is more convinced that China will continue to follow the path of peaceful development. Moving ahead, we need more young people to experience, understand, and devote to the undertaking of the Maritime Silk Road.

To end my speech today, I would like leave you three witty remarks. The first one comes from a national hero from Fujian Province, Lin Zexu. He has once written a famous poetic couplet that says, “the vastness of the ocean comes from its accepting of thousands of rivers, the resilience of thousands of cliffs comes from their absence of desire”. The second one I recalled from my visit to Kyoto many years ago. In the Manpuku-ji Temple, there is a couplet written by the Fujian born high priest Yinyuan Longqi (Ingen Ryuki in Japanese) that reads, “there isn’t a door that separates the believers and non-believers, and one can always move forward uninterrupted as long as one pursues the correct path”. And the last but not the least, as the Chair of China Shakespeare Studies Association, I would also like to quote his words, “unite closely around you those time-tested friends”. I believe these words would lend much wisdom to our discussions today and to the building of the Maritime Silk Road of the 21st Century in the time ahead.

Thank you!