BEIJING -- China-India relations are standing at a new starting point and facing new opportunities, Chinese President Xi Jinping said Wednesday when exchanging congratulatory messages with his Indian counterpart, Ram Nath Kovind, on the 70th anniversary of bilateral diplomatic ties.
In his message, Xi said China-India relations have experienced extraordinary development during the past 70 years. With joint efforts of both sides, the two countries have established a strategic and cooperative partnership for peace and prosperity, and are endeavoring to build an even closer partnership of development, he added.
The two sides enjoy increasingly deepening bilateral exchanges and cooperation in various fields, and constantly improving coordination on important regional and international affairs, he said.
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LONDON -- The COVID-19 pandemic won't lead to deglobalization and instead it highlights the importance of global cooperation as more efforts are needed to combat a crisis like this, an Oxford University expert has said.
"I believe the pandemic might be one factor changing the nature of globalization, but it won't lead to deglobalization or put an end to it," Ian Goldin, professor of globalization and development at Oxford University and the founding director of the Oxford Martin School, told Xinhua via phone.
Having assessed the pros and cons of globalization in his books "The Butterfly Defect "and "Age of Discovery", Goldin explains that globalization brings development and cooperation, even though interconnectivity also leads to new threats, and facilitates the spread of the novel coronavirus. "While in the short run the pandemic has led to a slowing of trade and travel, the virus will not stop globalization."
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UNITED NATIONS -- China has led other United Nations Security Council (UNSC) members to set up new working modalities for emergencies amid COVID-19, in an effort to ensure the council functions effectively and plays its due role, according to a Chinese envoy.
During its presidency of the UNSC last month, China has explored emergency work plans and created new modalities, making it possible for the council to discharge its mandate, Zhang Jun, China's permanent representative to the United Nations, said Tuesday in a briefing on the council's work in March.
The security council has "pioneered and recorded two breakthroughs for first time in history," Zhang noted. Council members, with the technical support of the UN Secretariat, set up a video teleconference (VTC) system and the first VTC meeting was held last week.
"I am pleased to see that the new working modalities have continued to improve, and countries directly concerned have been able to attend and address the VTC meetings. I am convinced that this working modalities will become more mature," Zhang said.
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NEW YORK -- U.S. officials and researchers have been urging people to follow social distancing guidelines as a total of 189,035 COVID-19 cases and 3,900 deaths were reported in the United States as of Tuesday night.
Health experts on the White House Coronavirus Task Force said Tuesday that even with the Trump administration's national social distancing guidelines in place, Americans still should be prepared for the prospect of the coronavirus causing 100,000 to 240,000 deaths in the country.
At a White House press briefing, Deborah Birx, the task force's response coordinator, said as many as 1.5 million to 2.2 million people will succumb to COVID-19 if no mitigation measures whatsoever are taken to contain the virus.
"There's no magic bullet, there's no magic vaccine or therapy. It's just behaviors," Birx said, urging people to act according to the administration's social distancing strategy, which has been extended to April 30. Those behaviors, Birx added, could change "the course of the viral pandemic." Enditem
