President Xi Jinping addresses the United Nations General Assembly in New York City on Monday.[Photo/Xinhua]

Xi says nation will provide millions in aid for the African Union in next 5 years

China will establish a $1 billion "China-UN Peace and Development Fund" to support the United Nations' multilateral cooperation and boost world peace, President Xi Jinping said on Monday.

Xi's announcement came in his first speech at the UN headquarters in New York City, at the annual debate of the 70th session of the General Assembly.

He said China would take the initiative in forming a police peacekeeping team and building a peacekeeping force of 8,000 as the country prepares to join the new UN peacekeeping stand by mechanism.

In the next five years, China will provide $100 million in aid to the African Union to support the building of an African standby force and an emergency response and quick-response force, Xi said.

China "firmly supports" expanding the representativeness and say of developing countries, especially African nations, in the international governing system, Xi said. "China's vote in the UN always belongs to the developing countries," he added.

Over the weekend, he announced several proposals to help the least-developed countries, including exempting their debt.

At the UN Sustainable Development Summit on Saturday, Xi said China would provide $2 billion to support South-South cooperation.

This refers to the mutual sharing of development solutions among developing nations, primarily in the Southern Hemisphere.

China would exempt the debt on the outstanding intergovernmental interest-free loans owed by the least-developed countries and due by the end of this year, Xi said.

Speaking at another meeting on Sunday, he said China would invite 30,000 women from developing countries to take part in training programs in China and would help such countries to train 100,000 female technical personnel. China would also donate $10 million to the group UN Women.

Chen Jian, a former UN undersecretary-general and a veteran Chinese diplomat, said Xi had dismissed doubts by some UN member states over China's rapid rise.

The president's promises are "very powerful and impressive", and China's follow-up efforts will be tested over time, Chen said, adding that in the past two years, China had been increasingly proactive in offering diplomatic initiatives.

"Although China is still a developing country, most UN members believe that it should contribute more to the UN, as it has become the second-largest economy in the world," he said.

Su Ge, president of the China Institute of International Studies, said that as a beneficiary of the existing international system, it is China's duty to make more contributions to the international community.

Before attending a series of UN summits from Saturday to Monday, Xi made a four-day state visit to the United States.

The UN General Assembly, comprising all 193 members of the UN, meets in regular session from September to December each year. It provides a forum for multilateral discussion of the full range of international issues covered by the UN Charter.