On April 6, 2005, the fourth Asia Cooperation Dialogue (ACD) Foreign Ministers Meeting was held in Islamabad. Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing addressed the meeting.
Li said that to maintain and strengthen the dynamism of ADC and tap its development potential, all member countries should make great efforts to conduct pragmatic cooperation, expand and intensify cooperation and raise cooperation quality and efficiency. To that end China raises the following proposals:
I. Consolidating existing cooperation achievements. It is suggested that specific action plans be developed for each of the existing 19 cooperation areas and new progress be made on annual basis.
II. Continuing to expand cooperation areas. In response to the real needs, China proposes opening dialogue among civilizations and cooperation in public health and media as new cooperation areas of ACD. The Indian Ocean tsunami disaster shows that Asian countries need to strengthen cooperation in disaster relief and China is willing to lead efforts in that direction.
III. Promoting energy resources cooperation. Last year the ACD Foreign Ministers Meeting adopted the Qingdao Initiative, proposing to establish the "Asia Energy Cooperation Forum". To implement the Initiative, China is willing to host the third ACD Working Group Meeting on Energy Security to discuss how to enhance Asia's energy cooperation.
Li also introduced China's stance on the Korean Peninsular nuclear issue, South Asian situation and the reform of the UN.
The foreign ministers of the participating ACD member countries also addressed the meeting, mainly exchanging ideas on international and regional issues, discussing the direction of Asia cooperation and expressing their opinions on the specific areas and institutional construction of ACD. The meeting adopted the Islamabad Declaration and the Islamabad Initiative on Asia's economic cooperation.
The foreign ministers of Vietnam, Pakistan, India, Laos and Bhutan made speeches supporting the Anti-Secession Law earlier passed by the National People's Congress of China.
Comprised of 26 member countries, ACD is the only official dialogue and cooperation mechanism that aims to eventually encompass all countries in Asia. In June 2002, with the initiative of Thailand the first ACD Foreign Ministers Meeting was held in Cha-Am, Thailand.