At UN, China focus on Africa, Mideast

Africa and the Middle East will be two major focuses for the UN Security Council during China's presidency for the month of July, with scheduled open debates on enhancing peace and security in Africa, as well as the situation in Palestine, according to the country's permanent presentative to the UN.

Regions in discussion for July include Syria, Yemen, Iraq, Lebanon, South Sudan, Burundi, Colombia, as well as Haiti and Cyprus, said Liu Jieyi on Monday at a press briefing on the program of work at the Security Council.

"China certainly will be objective and impartial in carrying out the duties of the president, will try to be as transparent as the Council members would like us to be, and we certainly will try to arrange the work of the Security Council in the efficient and effective way to make the best use of the time available," he said.

On South Sudan, the Council will urge different parties to cease "whatever hostilities still exist" and to work out a lasting solution best for the country and its people; the Council will also persuade parties in Yemen to seek reconciliation, solving problems through political means; for Colombia, the Security Council will adopt a resolution backing a second political mission that will continue its work emptying weapons caches and destroying explosives.

An open debate scheduled tentatively for July 18 will continue conversations on enhancing African capacities in areas of peace and stability, according to Liu, which the next two Security Council presidents - Egypt and Ethiopia - are likely to continue.

"We see the four months as a period of generating more political momentum in the Security Council to help Africa enhance its capacity in areas of peace and security because [China is] of the view that we should always provide more help to Africa to seek solutions to African problems by African countries in African ways," said Liu.

"So whatever focus the security council can bring to this issue of enhancing capacity building in Africa, it will serve a very good cause to not only peace and stability in Africa but also peace operations in general throughout the world," he said.

The second open debate scheduled for July 25 on the Middle East will hopefully bring negotiations on the issue of the two-state solution in Palestine and Israel, Liu said.

Asked about China's views on its contributions to the UN's peacekeeping efforts in light of the UN slashing its peacekeeping budget by $600 million due to pressure from the US, Liu said that it is "important that we use every dollar to where it is truly needed, and it is about how to make the peacekeeping operations more efficient and effective with the kind of resources that we have."

China is the second-largest contributor to the UN peacekeeping budget, Liu said.

"We certainly hope that all the other countries will wholeheartedly support the UN peacekeeping operations because we don't see a better alternative to multilateral efforts to actually make a difference in countries hosting or where the peacekeepers are deployed," he said.

amyhe@chinadailyusa.com