Remarks by China’s Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador Fu Cong at the UN Security Council Debate on UN Peacekeeping Operations
President,
I thank Secretary-General António Guterres for his briefing.
UN peacekeeping operations were born for peace and exist for peace. They are an effective tool for maintaining international peace and security. At present, changes unseen in a century are unfolding at an accelerated pace, the international peace and security situation is complex and grave, and conflicts of various kinds are protracted and recurrent. Peacekeeping operations face new circumstances, new challenges, and new requirements. Recently, the Secretary-General submitted the report on the future of all forms of United Nations peace operations, which is of great significance for promoting the transformation and upgrading of peacekeeping operations and improving their quality and efficiency. I would like to make four points.
First, peacekeeping operations should serve political processes and be kept on the right course. The fundamental purpose of peacekeeping operations is to create conducive conditions for a political settlement. They must serve a clearly defined political process. We should fully leverage the roles of preventive diplomacy, good offices, mediation, and political dialogue to bridge political differences, identify the framework for solutions, provide peacekeeping operations with a solid political foundation, and avoid finding ourselves in a situation where there is no peace to keep. This is the fundamental guarantee for peacekeeping operations to achieve tangible results. At the same time, peacekeeping operations should effectively fulfill their mandates, including the protection of civilians and ensuring humanitarian access, so as to minimize the collateral harm caused by conflicts.
Second, mandates should be optimized and streamlined on the basis of actual needs. When formulating mandates, the Security Council should proceed from reality, fully consider the nature of the conflict, the environment in which the mission operates, and the needs of the host country, and determine mission objectives and priorities in a solid manner, ensuring that mandates are clear, focused, practical, and feasible. We should further improve the review and assessment mechanisms and make timely adjustments to the scale and priorities of missions in accordance with the wishes of the host countries and changes in the situation on the ground. We should set clear and feasible transition and exit strategies for peacekeeping operations in a timely manner. Yet such strategies should not be held hostage to the policies of any individual country, nor should peacekeeping missions be used when they suit those countries' purposes and abandoned when they do not.
Third, we should keep improving quality and efficiency and ensure that resources match mandates. On the one hand, we should make missions more agile, flexible, and efficient, promote a culture of efficiency throughout the entire process, continuously optimize resource allocation, and improve the cost-effectiveness of the use of funds. Efforts should also be made to improve the cost-effectiveness and transparency of peacekeeping procurement. We should improve the performance assessment systems of missions, attach importance to the views of the host countries, and turn the assessment results into the basis for improving the ways of operations, enhancing their effectiveness, and reducing expenditures. On the other hand, based on actual mission needs, we should actively and prudently employ new technologies to enhance capabilities in situation awareness, early warning, and logistical support. We should promote the integration of green and energy-saving technologies, unmanned systems and intelligent technologies into peacekeeping, thereby enhancing the effectiveness of peacekeeping operations and the ability to ensure their own safety and security. Liquidity challenge remains a persistent constraint on peacekeeping operations. Member States should provide peacekeeping operations with necessary resources.
Fourth, we should strengthen coordination among partners and build synergy for maintaining peace. Peacekeeping operations are a systematic undertaking. We should further strengthen communication and cooperation among the Security Council, the Secretariat, host countries, troop- and police-contributing countries, and financial contributors, ensuring that all parties coordinate closely, support one another, and work in the same direction, so as to strengthen the coherence and coordination among mandates authorization, mission implementation, resource provision, and strategic assessment. We should strengthen coordination and cooperation with regional organizations such as the African Union, support solving regional problems the regional way through regional strength, support the African Union and other regional organizations in enhancing their own peacekeeping capabilities, and support the implementation of Security Council Resolution 2719 to provide financing for AU-led peace support operations.
President,
China is a staunch supporter of and an active participant in UN peacekeeping operations. Over the past three decades and more, more than 50,000 Chinese peacekeepers have been dispatched in 29 UN peacekeeping operations authorized by the Security Council, established the world's first standing peacekeeping police unit and maintains a peacekeeping standby force of 8,000 troops. More than 20 Chinese peacekeepers have given their lives in peacekeeping operations. Guided by the Global Governance Initiative proposed by President Xi Jinping, China stands ready to work with all parties, remain true to our original commitment to multilateralism, never forget our mission of maintaining peace, proceed from reality, uphold fundamental principles while breaking new ground, and make peacekeeping operations more practical, efficient, and sustainable, so as to make greater contributions to maintaining international peace and security.
Thank you, President.
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