China urges Security Council to pay more attention to Africa

China on Thursday urged the UN Security Council to pay more attention to the demands of Africa and support the efforts of the African Union in maintaining peace and security on the continent.

Wang Min, Chinese deputy permanent representative to the UN, made the remarks while addressing a plenary meeting of the 67th General Assembly on reviewing the annual report of the Security Council.

In the face of challenges in international peace and security, "we hope the Security Council would pay more attention to the demands of Africa and support the efforts of regional organizations such as the African Union in maintaining peace and security of the African Continent," said Wang.

The Security Council should make better use of such means as mediation and coordination to prevent conflict and turmoil, reform and improve the UN peacekeeping mission, support post-conflict peacebuilding in order to make greater contribution to safeguarding international peace and security, he said.

On the issue of reforming the Security Council, Wang said China supports the Council in enhancing authority and efficiency through reasonable and necessary reforms.

The Council should give priority to increasing the representation of developing countries, those in Africa in particular, the ambassador said.

The reform should offer more opportunities to more countries, particularly small- and medium-sized countries, to serve in the Security Council on a rotating basis to participate in its decision-making process, he added.

At the moment, member states remain seriously divided on the issue of Security Council reform, they need to continue to reach consensus, meet each other halfway through democratic consultations, Wang said.

"Setting an artificial time limit for the reform or taking forceful action when the condition is not ripe will not help resolve problems but only lead to differences and confrontations among member states," he said.

Calling for a package solution to the issue, Wang said adoption of the "piecemeal" or "step-by-step" approach would not work.

The reform should resort to intergovernmental negotiations as the main channel and proceed orderly in the principles of openness, inclusiveness and transparency, Wang said, adding that ownership by the member states is the important principle guiding intergovernmental negotiations.

"Sticking to the principle of being driven by member states is both the prerequisite for the healthy development of the reform process and the guarantee for successful result of the reform," Wang said. "Imposing any solution will make it impossible to accommodate, to the greatest extent, the legitimate concerns of the majority of the member states. Without a mandate of the member states, we should not allow any willful attempt to streamline the participation of the member states or to reduce the options for negotiations."