The Chinese Foreign Ministry on Monday sent congratulations to the United Nations (UN) on its 77th anniversary, noting that it has shown its abiding commitment to multilateralism and played an irreplaceable role in upholding world peace and promoting common development.
The UN was officially established on October 24, 1945, with 51 member states, and China was also one of its founding members. To date, the inter-governmental organization has nearly 193 member States and over 1.5 million participants to support international cooperation and decision-making, according to media reports.
"Congratulations to the UN on its 77th anniversary. Seventy-seven years ago today, the UN Charter officially came into force and hence the founding of the UN, which opened a new chapter for international relations," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said on Monday.
As a permanent member of the Security Council and the first to put its signature on the UN Charter, China has always upheld the purposes and principles of the UN Charter and defended the central role of the UN in international affairs, Wang said.
The UN is now faced with challenges, especially in the context of the lack of transparent and trust-based cooperation among major powers. The role of the UN as the most authoritative organization for the maintenance of international security will inevitably be undermined and weakened, a Beijing-based expert on foreign relations told the Global Times on Monday.
Despite the challenges, there is no doubt that the UN will continue to play an active and leading role in international affairs that no country or international organization can replace at the moment, the expert said.
China has been actively advocating the leading role played by the UN, stressing that the purposes of the UN Charter should be taken as the basic standard of international rules, said the expert, noting that the rules of international relations should not be arbitrarily defined by some countries in the West.
China will remain committed to serving as a firm builder of world peace, a contributor to global development, and a defender of the international order, Wang said.
China has sent more than 50,000 peacekeepers to participate in UN peacekeeping operations, and has become the second largest contributor to the UN's regular budget and peacekeeping assessments. China also supports the work of the UN in various fields through establishing the Peace and Development Trust Fund with the UN. These are all part of China's contribution to world peace and development, Wang added.
China is among the first countries to meet the UN Millennium Development Goals, and is actively implementing the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda, deepening South-South cooperation and doing what we can to support other developing countries' sustainable development efforts, he said.
China is a member of almost all universal inter-governmental organizations and a party to over 600 international conventions and amendments.
We facilitated the conclusion of the Paris Agreement, announced our targets for carbon peaking and neutrality, and provided more than 2.2 billion doses of COVID vaccines to more than 120 countries and international organizations, contributing to the response to global challenges, Wang said.
