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President Xi Jinping Meets with UN Secretary-General António Guterres

2022-02-05 23:30

On the afternoon of 5 February at the Great Hall of the People, President Xi Jinping met with Secretary-General of the United Nations António Guterres who came to China to attend the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022.

President Xi stressed that to host a successful Beijing Winter Olympics and Paralympics is a solemn commitment of China to the international community. China will organize a streamlined, safe and splendid Olympic Games that offers a stage for winter sport athletes from around the world to pursue sporting excellence. This will not only help achieve the goal of building a healthy China, but also inject confidence and strength into the COVID-19-plagued world. Noting the upbeat spirit and strength the Chinese people have demonstrated in the process of organizing the event, President Xi expressed the confidence that with the strong backing of the people, China can accomplish anything. 

President Xi noted three important things in the world that deserve serious contemplation and attention for the present and for some time to come. First, fighting the pandemic with solidarity. China fully supports the UN target of 70 percent COVID vaccination coverage by mid-2022, and has fulfilled its commitment to providing two billion doses of vaccines to the world in 2021. President Xi reaffirmed China’s commitment to ramping up assistance to other developing countries in pandemic response, noting that China is a country that honors its commitment with actions. Second, promoting development. President Xi remarked that the Global Development Initiative he proposed is highly compatible with the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and is meant to promote a more robust, greener and more balanced global development. China stands ready to closely cooperate with the UN to jointly advance the work. Third, promoting democracy. President Xi pointed out that no system should be regarded as the only model to follow, nor is there a single development model that fits all. Every country has the right to choose a path that suits its national realities and meets its people’s needs.

President Xi stressed that humanity lives in a global village where the destinies of all are intertwined. Faced with various pressing global challenges, humanity can have a better future only by strengthening solidarity and cooperation and boarding together the “Noah’s Ark” of the new era. China will continue to firmly support the work of the UN, think in big-picture terms and rise to its responsibilities, and make new contributions to preserving world peace and development and building a community with a shared future for mankind.

Warmly congratulating China on the spectacular opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics, Secretary-General Guterres commended China for having successfully organized such a large-scale and safe event. He stressed that the world now needs a successful Winter Olympics to send a clear message to the world that people of any country, ethnicity and religion can rise above differences to achieve solidarity and cooperation. He noted the huge contributions China has made to the global response to the pandemic by striving to provide two billion doses of vaccines to the world and hailed President Xi’s Global Development Initiative as one of great importance in advancing the realization of the UN Sustainable Development Goals for 2030 and addressing the inequality and imbalance in global development. Noting that the world cannot afford division and confrontation and the only way to address the various risks and challenges effectively is to uphold multilateralism, solidarity and cooperation, Secretary-General Guterres thanked China for its firm support to the UN and multilateralism and stressed that partnership with China is an important pillar of the United Nations and multilateralism. He expressed the UN’s readiness to step up cooperation with China and the hope that China will play a greater role on important issues like the reform of the international system.

Ding Xuexiang, Yang Jiechi, Wang Yi and He Lifeng were present at the meeting.

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