China Stresses Sovereignty Principle, U.N. Authority
China said on July 27 that upholding the principle of sovereignty has become all the more necessary in the present-day world where there is a severe lack of equilibrium in the balance of power.
In a speech to a dialogue meeting in Singapore between ASEAN and its dialogue partners, Chinese Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan also stressed the importance of respect for the role and authority of the United Nations.
the purposes and spirit defined in the U.N. Charter and the norms governing international relations advocated at the Bandung Conference, Tang said, are still of strong vitality and practical significance today.
These are the basis of a new international political, economic and security order and carry the hope of a lasting peace for the world, Tang told the opening of the ASEAN Post-Ministerial Conference (PMC).
The core of these principles and norms is mutual respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity, non-aggression, non-interference in each other's internal affairs, equality and mutual benefit and peaceful coexistence, Tang said.
"Countries, big or small, strong or weak, are all equal before the principle of sovereignty," he said.
"The reality that globalization has made national interests closely intertwined cannot alter the effectiveness of the principle of sovereignty, nor can it change the unlawfulness of interference in the internal affairs of a sovereign state," he stressed.
"When the reality is marked by a severe lack of equilibrium in the balance of power in the world, upholding the principle of sovereignty has become all the more necessary. This is especially true of the vast number of developing and small and medium-sized countries, whose sovereignty and independence are the basic prerequisite for their subsistence and development," the Chinese foreign minister said.
He said the claim such as "the supremacy of human rights over sovereignty" and "there is no national boundary in safeguarding human rights" are in essence excuses for strong countries to bully weak ones and attempts to have a rationale for big countries to control small ones.
Disputes among states, he said, can only be resolved peacefully through dialogue and negotiations on the basis of mutual respect of sovereignty. "This should be an important principle for the new international order."
"What is equally important is that the role and authority of the United Nations must be respected," Tang said.
As an association of sovereign states, the United Nations has a major responsibility for easing up regional conflicts, promoting disarmament and boosting world peace, cooperation and development, he said.
"It (the United Nations) cannot be replaced by any other international or regional organization or any group of nations in terms of its standing," he stressed.
"To bypass the U.N. and its Security Council so as to have one's own way will definitely weaken the pillar for the international security system and bring chaos into the international order," he said.
When mankind is about the enter the 21st century, what should be the guiding principles for international relations, what should be the guidelines for the handling of international affairs and by what means should world stability be promoted are the questions which "bear upon whether the human society can be free of the havoc of war, win a lasting peace and realize the rosy dream of establishing a new world of equality, cooperation and prosperity," Tang said.
"Hegemonism and power politics can not provide a secure and reliable international peaceful environment of long-term stability," he said.
While hegemonism and power politics may prevail for a certain period of time, they do not, in the final analysis, conform to the historical trend of multipolarization and globalization, nor do they serve the common interest of the world's people, or represent the direction in which human civilization develops, Tang said.
Foreign ministers from the 10 member states of ASEAN and the grouping's 10 dialogue partners including China, Russia, Japan and the United States are holding two days of dialogue meetings in Singapore. (Xinhua)
| 
