Chinese President Xi Jinping has called for stronger ties with neighbouring countries, urging efforts to forge a community with a shared future and to break new ground in China’s so-called ‘neighbourhood diplomacy’.

The remarks were made during a central conference on relations with neighbouring states, held in Beijing from April 8-9, Xinhua News Agency reports.

Xi, who also serves as General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party and is Chairman of the Central Military Commission, addressed gathered senior officials at the event.

During his address, Xi outlined China’s achievements in neighbourhood diplomacy during the current era although these were not listed in state English language media, and assessed the evolving regional landscape, while setting out strategic objectives, priorities and policy measures for the next phase of engagement.

As is typical at such events in China, the president’s comments are taken as ‘guidance’ that must, in time, be followed rather than ideas or concepts that can be discussed.

In turn, Premier Li Qiang, who presided over the meeting, as had been expected, called for full implementation of Xi’s ideas, the report continues. In the process Li also urged a focused approach to advancing neighbourhood diplomacy.

In doing so, however, he made no mention of long-standing territorial issues with China’s closest neighbours including Japan, South Korea and the self-governing country long claimed as an integral part of China by Beijing: Taiwan.

India, too, was ignored, with no reports linked to the event mentioning Beijing’s conflicting land claims with New Delhi in the Ladakh region of the western Himalayas.

Somewhat ominously, however, the conference did refer to the significance of China’s extensive borders while identifying neighbouring regions as fundamental to China’s national development, security and diplomacy; a sensitive issue on all sides, North, South, East and West, not least in the South China Sea, where China has recently clashed with the Philippines and Vietnam over its claims to remote atolls and sandbanks.

As a result, and despite talk of dealing with the neighbours without the neighbours actually being present, the Chinese remarks as such appeared a tad hollow, particularly as they somewhat ironically stressed the need for a global perspective in engaging with these areas while emphasising the importance of responsibility and long-term vision.

Since the 18th CCP National Congress in November 2012, China has pursued a ‘neighbourhood policy’ based on principles of amity, sincerity, mutual benefit and inclusiveness, the state-run Xinhua claims.

It is an approach, the government mouthpiece suggests be aimed at deepening cooperation, fostering stability and building a shared future with countries in the region - albeit a region made up of countries either at odds with China over territorial issues – read Japan, South Korea, the Philippines and all other countries bordering the South China Sea – or threatened militarily as in the case of Taiwan and India.

Only vaguely was mention made of existing tensions in the East Asia region – when the conference noted that relations with neighbouring countries have reached their highest level in modern history, but that at the same time the regional environment is increasingly complex, as shaped by both domestic and international factors.

Looking ahead, the same report went on to claim that China will continue promoting a peaceful, cooperative and prosperous regional environment, but presumably one that ignores said aforementioned South China Sea issues, the plight of the Uyghurs in Xinjiang / East Turkestan in the west of China, and the 23mn population of Taiwan living daily under threat of invasion.