Security Council's Role Irreplaceable: China

The U.N. Security Council's role in peacekeeping is irreplaceable and its authority is unquestionable, said Chinese Permanent Representative to the United Nations Wang Yingfan Wednesday.

Taking the floor at a debate of the U.N. General Assembly on the work of the United Nations in 1999, Wang said the council's responsibility and political leadership for peacekeeping should be preserved and upheld.

"The purposes and principles of the U.N. Charter as well as other long-established principles for peacekeeping such as neutrality, consent by parties to the conflict and non-use of force except for self-defense should continue to be observed," he stressed.

He said that the U.N., which has a primary responsibility for maintaining world peace, should make more positive contributions to stopping massive humanitarian crises and prevent the tragic massive killings of innocent civilians.

"On the other hand, we are fully aware of the complexity of international intervention and the risk of inappropriate intervention," he said.

"Big powers and blocs of countries should respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the country involved in the conflict rather than use humanitarian intervention to interfere in its internal affairs or trigger new conflicts," he said.

Turning to international security, the Chinese envoy said global strategic stability is the foundation on which world security rests.

The U.N. should continue to take necessary actions to prevent a certain country's move to undermine global strategic stability through the development of a national missile defense system,

which is a very dangerous move, Ambassador Wang said.

On the question of development, he emphasized the U.N.'s due role in narrowing the gap between the poor and the rich and promoting common prosperity in the international community by putting top priority to poverty eradication.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan submitted his annual report on the U.N.'s role in the 21st century to the General Assembly in March this year, covering major challenges facing the international community.

It served as a basic document for the Millennium Summit convened in early September. The gathering of some 150 heads of state or government endorsed Annan's call for meeting targets in education, poverty reduction and HIV/AIDS prevention among others for the next 15 to 20 years.



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