The head of the Anglican Communion, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams has spoken of China's "immense potential" in working to solve the world's problems.

|PIC1|Speaking at a reception for a Chevening scholars reunion in Nanjing on the 10 October, Dr Williams emphasised that China had its place in a future which will require nations to work together more than ever.

The Church of England leader said, "... there are more and more problems in our world which no one nation can confront alone. So much of our history - Europe's - has been a history where we've imagined that because of national sovereignty independence of national economies, we can sort out our own business.

"And of course the big challenges of our day; challenges such as the environment, the challenges of health and health care and the way in which modern disease spreads, the challenges posed by global communications systems - all of these tell us that there are more and more things that we cannot resolve alone."

Dr Williams explained that he had been expecting on his visit to be learning about modern-day China but what he had found was the potential that the emerging Asian country has for the future.

"China is emerging as a senior partner in the fellowship of nations; a country whose economy is changing so fast and whose profile in the world has become so recognisable and distinctive that we can't imagine a global future without the Chinese presence.

"It's a presence which can do great good; it's a presence which has the capacity to push forward agendas, for instance about development and particularly about sustainable development," said the archbishop.

He told those gathered, "Yours is a society which will have messages to give to the rest of the world but I hope too that it's a society willing to receive and to hear what the rest of the world has to say and that process begins in experiences like yours. It begins in experiences of sharing a cultural distinctiveness in our different settings; it begins in developing that global awareness without which no civilisation is going to last."