On September 10, 2021, President Xi Jinping sent a congratulatory letter to the 18th China-ASEAN Expo and China-ASEAN Business and Investment Summit.

Xi Jinping pointed out, since the establishment of dialogue relations 30 years ago, China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have continuously deepened their all-around cooperation and become each other's largest trading partners with the most dynamic cooperation in the Asia-Pacific region. Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the two sides have been working jointly to fight the pandemic and tide over the hard times, demonstrating the spirit of helping each other and sharing weal and woe for a community with a shared future with concrete actions.

Xi Jinping emphasized, last November, I made a four-pronged proposal for building a closer China-ASEAN community with a shared future at the opening ceremony of the 17th China-ASEAN Expo and China-ASEAN Business and Investment Summit, which has received positive responses from ASEAN countries, and relevant cooperation has been advancing. Looking into the future, China is willing to strengthen strategic mutual trust with ASEAN, deepen cooperation in pandemic response, economy, trade and other areas, and promote the early coming into effect and implementation of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership as well as high-quality joint construction to the Belt and Road Initiative, so as to forge a higher-level strategic partnership and jointly maintain the good momentum of regional prosperity and development.

The 18th China-ASEAN Expo and China-ASEAN Business and Investment Summit, which opened in Nanning of Guangxi on the same day with the theme "Sharing Opportunities Created by the New Land-Sea Corridor, Building the China-ASEAN Community with a Shared Future", was co-organized by the Ministry of Commerce of China, economic and trade authorities of ten ASEAN countries, as well as the ASEAN Secretariat.