1. Rationale

Since 2012, China’s foreign policy doctrine in the new era has been centered upon a notion of ‘promoting a sense of community of shared destiny for mankind’. Chinese President Xi Jinping has expounded this notion to the world through ‘working together to forge a new partnership of win-win cooperation and create a community of shared future for mankind’, and ‘work together to build a community of shared future for mankind’. The idea of building an Asian Community with a shared future for mankind has been presumably introduced by China to Asia, Southeast Asia in particular. The concept has demonstrated China’s commitment to work with other countries in the region and beyond in order to build a community of shared future, thus reaffirming the long-standing foreign policy of this global power towards the strengthening of global peace and prosperity. This is in line with the evolving trend of the world, and relevant to the needs of Asian nations.

China has made a good start by devising an action plan with a Southeast Asian country, Cambodia. Cambodia and China have recently signed an MoU on the establishment of ‘China-Cambodia Community of Shared Future for Mankind’. This has paved a way for the two countries to work closely to promote a common understanding and resolve issues and challenges for the sake of the two peoples, finally contributing to the building of the Asian Community of shared future for mankind.

In this case, Cambodia may play a very important role in connecting China with the rest of Southeast Asian countries under the Asian Community of shared future for mankind, whose underlying conception is based upon people-to-people exchanges, deepened cooperation, people-oriented interests, and other positive contributions to regional and global peace and prosperity. Bearing this significance of this community, Asian Vision Institute (AVI), in collaboration with interested Chinese stakeholders and the Senate of Cambodia, propose to organise a webinar on “Building a Community of Shared Future: Perspectives from Southeast Asian Countries”.

2. Objectives

The objectives of the webinar are:

• To promote mutual understanding among regional scholars regarding the concept of China’s community of shared future for mankind;
• To identify practical areas of cooperation under the concept of community of shared future for mankind;

3. Activities

Several prominent scholars from local, regional and international will be invited to join a webinar on the topic of “Building a Community of Shared Future: Perspectives from Southeast Asia Countries” via Zoom on Friday, June 26^th, 2020 at 3:00 – 5:00 PM (Cambodian time).

The themes for the discussions:

1. Community of Shared Future: Meaning and Implications
2. Practical Cooperation under the Framework of Community of Shared Future
3. Poverty Reduction: Best Practices

4. Expected Outcomes

• Regional scholars and stakeholders will have a better understanding about the concept of a community of shared future;
• Policy recommendations on practical cooperation under the framework of building a community of shared future will be developed;
• Practical experiences on poverty reduction will be shared and documented, and possibly converted into policy recommendations for policy makers at the national and regional levels.