BEIJING: As this year marks the 75th anniversary of the founding of the United Nations, officials and experts have called for upholding multilateralism and concerted efforts to secure the UN Sustainable Development Goals amid mounting unilateralism and protectionism as well as the COVID-19 pandemic.
Speaking at the virtual Vision China event organized by China Daily on Wednesday, they voiced hope that China, as a major international player on the international stage and a champion of multilateralism and the international system with the UN at its center, would play a bigger part in promoting global development against the backdrop of deep global economic recession.
During the video addresses delivered to the event, Amina J.Mohammed, UN deputy secretary-general and also chairwoman of the UN Sustainable Development Group, said COVID-19 has shown that multilateral institutions are essential and that there is overwhelming support for multilateralism across the world.
“People want collective action to address the pandemic, climate change and conflict. They want to see our world transformed, and they want to play their part,” she said, adding that this message has emerged clearly from UN75, the global conversation for the UN anniversary.
The Vision China event, themed “Shaping our Future Together: Poverty Eradication&Peaceful Development”, was broadcast online to a global audience. It was the 15th edition since China Daily launched the platform, which invites influential political, business and academic speakers to tell China’s story from a global perspective and discuss major China-related topics of international interest.
Given the unprecedented challenges the world is facing as well as the profound changes unseen in a century in the international landscape, “it has become even more important that we stand firmly committed to multilateralism with the UN at its core, and combine our efforts toward a community with a shared future for mankind,” said Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs Ma Zhaoxu in a speech at the event.
Ma said that faithfully observing the purpose and principles of the UN Charter and upholding the international order based on international law are crucial for world peace and development. “We must reject any act that undermines the norms governing international relations, and we must act together to defeat the attempt of a certain country to start a new Cold War.”
Addressing Wednesday’s event, Guo Weimin, vice-minister of the State Council Information Office, said that in the face of unbalanced global development and widening South-North development gaps, countries need to uphold the philosophy of win-win cooperation and work together to eliminate poverty. “To this end,… we need to build up the consensus of people from different countries, ethnicities and regions with different beliefs and cultures, and we need to turn people’s aspirations into visions and goals and translate them into concrete plans and actions,” Guo said.
Zhou Shuchun, publisher and editor-in-chief of China Daily, analyzed the challenges the world is facing in his speech. He said the COVID-19 pandemic poses new challenges to global development, and humankind is once again standing at a crossroads.
It is the time to draw on historical experiences and look to the future, Zhou said. “No matter who we are, media people or businesspeople, scholars or diplomats, politicians or common folks, we should stand on the right side of history and push for human civilization to make new progress in facing up to the challenges.”
– The Daily Mail-China Daily News exchange item
