On September 19, 2005, Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing attended the 60th session of the United Nations General Assembly at the UN headquarters in New York and delivered a speech entitled Taking the Road of Peaceful, Harmonious and Common Development at the general debate. Li elaborated opinions on building a harmonious world with long-lasting peace and common prosperity under new circumstances.

China upholds peace and development. The progress of humanity needs a peaceful environment. It is impossible for a country to achieve stability and security based on the upheavals and crisis of other countries. Only by setting up a new security consensus, mutual trust, mutual benefit and equal collaboration can we realize development in a peaceful environment and maintain peace in the course of development.

China supports the harmonious development. To build a better society is the ideal pursued by humanity assiduously. All countries in the world should join hands to promote the democratization and legalization of the international relations and build a harmonious environment in which countries respect each other and treat each other as equals and different civilizations learn from each other and conduct exchanges and integration.

China proposes common development. The development which only benefits a small number of countries and interest groups will not last long. All the countries in the world should strengthen cooperation and push the economic globalization in a direction of win-win and common prosperity.

Having experienced 60 years of development, the United Nations needs all-dimensional and cross-sector reform so as to contribute more to the lofty undertaking of peace and development of humanity. The position of the UN as the core of the collective security mechanism must be strengthened. China supports reinforcing UN's prevention, coordination and mediation efforts and peace keeping operations and opposes the arbitrary use of force or threatening the use of force in international relations. The international community should continue pushing forward the process of international arms control, disarmament and non-proliferation, maintain and enhance the authoritativeness and effectiveness of existing multilateral treaties and give full play to the role of international organizations including the UN. The UN should effectively cope with non-conventional security threats.

Li reiterated China's five major measures declared by President Hu Jintao earlier to help accelerate the progress of developing countries and noted that China is ready to continue making contributions within its own capacity to promoting international development cooperation. Li pointed out that development should become the mainstream of the UN reform. The United Nations should establish a fair and reasonable framework to assess of the progress of the millennium development goals in different countries and supervise the implementation of international cooperation and assistance commitment. New fund raising models should be explored to input greater amount of fund into development and priority should be given to help the developing countries strengthen capacity building. The Doha round of negotiations should reflect the theme of development and give more considerations and truly solve the concerns of the developing countries. The international community, especially the developed countries, should take tangible measures to help the developing countries to get rid of the vicious cycle of debts and strengthen efforts of debt relief and reduce conditions attached.

China supports the reform of the Security Council in order to improve the authoritativeness and efficiency of the organization. Priorities should be given to increasing the representation of developing countries, especially the African countries so that a bigger number of small and medium-sized countries have more opportunities to participate in the decision making of the Security Council. The reform scheme only solving the concerns of a small number of countries, neglecting the interest of the majority of countries and treating African and other developing countries unfairly will lead no where. The reform involves the future of the United Nations and the interest of all parties concerned, so the member states should reach extensive agreement through dialogue and consultations in accordance with the democratization principles of the international relations.

African countries make up one quarter of the total member states of the United Nations and their population account for 13% of the world total. World peace will become impossible without stability in Africa and so will development of the world without prosperity in Africa. The Security Council should pay special attention to the problems, listen to the voice, respect the opinions and take into account the concerns of Africa.

The international community should reach global consensus on promoting the development of Africa and help Africa implement the New Partnership for Africa's Development and realize the millennium development goals as scheduled. Assistance provided to Africa should respect the independence and meet the fundamental and long-term needs of African countries.

Li at the end said that the six-party talks on the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue just finished in Beijing reached important consensus and declared a joint statement. The joint statement, thanks to the political will and hard work of all the six parties, marks a major step forward and reflects the common aspiration of the international community. The result is hard-won and deserves to be cherished. We hope that all the parties concerned continue working hard to constantly push forward the process of the six-party talks, peacefully solve the nuclear issue through dialogue, ensure the long-term peace and stability on the Peninsula and realize common development and prosperity. The Chinese government will continue making active contributions to that end.