a. Politically, our two sides respect each other's sovereignty and territorial integrity and their independent choice of development path. Guided by the spirit of the Joint Statement of the Meeting of the Heads of State/Government of the Member States of ASEAN and the President of the People's Republic of China in 1997, China has signed separately with the ten ASEAN countries political documents aimed at development of bilateral relations in the 21st century. In October 2003, China acceded to the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia, which demonstrated that the political trust between the two sides notably enhanced.