China firmly against use of chemical weapons: Chinese FM

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(L to R) British Foreign Secretary William Hague, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi pose for photographers before a P5 Plus One luncheon during the 68th United Nations General Assembly at the UN headquarters in New York, Sept. 25, 2013. (Xinhua/Jun Zhang)

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Wednesday that China is firmly against the use of chemical weapons and strongly backs the effort to seek a political settlement of the Syria chemical arm crisis.

He made the remarks at the Opening Plenary Meeting of a UN Special Event.

The Syria issue has been a hot topic on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly. A UN investigation has confirmed that chemical weapons were used in Damascus, the capital of Syria, in an attack on Aug. 21.

The U.S. has been urging the U.N. Security Council to pass a resolution allowing the use of force to ensure Syria open its stockpile of chemical weapons to the international community for inspection and destruction.

Wang had earlier reiterated that the Syria issue could only be solved through political means, not a military solution, during a luncheon with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and four other foreign ministers of the five permanent members of UN Security Council.

The UN Special Event is to follow up the efforts made to advance the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and formulate the roadmap of the post-2015 development agenda.

To uphold peace is the precondition for the MDGs, Wang said, explaining "we must cherish peace as we do our eyes," when advancing the development agenda.

The Chinese foreign minister also called on the international community to strive for an open, inclusive and growing economy to let more developing countries "integrate into the global value chain and benefit from it."

In addition, he noted a new type of framework for development cooperation should be developed so that international institutions can better play their roles in resolving development issues.

The MDGs follow the trend of peace, development and cooperation in the 21st century, he said, and it must "keep moving forward, rather than go backward."

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