Visiting United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan
said?Monday that the UN would work with China to maintain
world peace and security and promote cooperation and
development.
Annan made these remarks during talks with Foreign Minister Li
Zhaoxing.
Li said the Chinese government would continue to support the
central role of the UN in international affairs.
Annan and Li discussed the situation in Iraq, Sudan and
Afghanistan, reform of the United Nations and the Korean Peninsula
nuclear issue as well as China's participation in UN peacekeeping
missions.
Annan is in Beijing on a five-day official visit, which started
on Saturday. He will meet President Hu Jintao today.
He is also due to visit an eco-village and HIV/AIDS testing
center, and tour the Chinese peacekeepers' training center at
Langfang in north China's Hebei Province today.
China currently provides some 1,000 military and police
personnel for 12 UN peacekeeping operations.
Annan Monday hailed the 25th anniversary of UN-China partnership
as "a testimony to the strong partnerships the UN has forged in
China."
He said the UN had not only established partnership with the
Chinese government but also with business and civil society in the
nation.
He added the partnership also applied within the United Nations
itself "so that many parts of the UN system now work together to
place our collective expertise at the disposal of the Chinese
people."?
State Councillor Tang Jiaxuan also attended the 25th anniversary
of the UN-China partnership. He highly praised UN agencies in China
for their contribution to the country's reform and modernization
cause.
"Together we aimed at improving the well-being of Chinese nation
and people and delivering the best we could," said Khalid Malik,
resident coordinator of UN in China.
At the ceremony, Annan presented UN awards to six eminent
people, Li Lanqing, Huang Hua, Peng Peiyun, Deng Pufang, Wei Yu and
Long Yongtu, who were recognized for the special contribution they
have made to China-UN cooperation.
To commemorate the anniversary, UN China held an exhibition in
the garden of the Beijing office of the United Nations Development
Programme to showcase the 25 years of collaboration between China
and the UN. The exhibition consisted of eight booths, one for each
of the UN Theme Groups established to coordinate the work of the
various UN agencies working in China. The exhibition will remain
until UN Day, 24 October, with special viewings organized for
schools and community groups.
Annan also delivered a speech at Tsinghua University
yesterday.
He called on the Chinese students to help ensure global security
and achieve the UN's Millennium Development Goals.
Annan said that with its large population and its rapid economic
growth, China was being relied on to reach the Millennium
Development Goals, set by world leaders in 2000.
"It is theoretically possible that we might succeed in halving
the proportion of very poor people in the world by 2015, simply
because China had succeeded in lifting almost all its people out of
that category, even if most countries in Africa still had the same
proportion," said Annan.
"I urge you all -- and your contemporaries throughout China --
to commit yourselves to finding answers to our century's great
challenges of poverty, disease, and environmental degradation," he
said.
He also urged the students to "go out and make the world
better."
The UN chief also expressed his thanks to China for its
participation in the UN peacekeeping mission in Haiti, saying that
China is playing a greater role in dealing with threats and
challenges to world peace and security, and helping the world to
rebuild and improve the global security system in the 21st
century.
(China Daily October 12, 2004)
