China has ‘huge responsibility’ to reshape world order, reform global bodies like UN, WTO: foreign envoys to Beijing
- China, as permanent Security Council member and global power, has a ‘big responsibility’ to shape changes, German envoy tells round-table talks
- Counterparts from EU, Turkey and South Africa also highlight need to ‘reinforce multipolar system’ for a solidarity-based, robust global order
China has a “huge responsibility” to shape the future world order, as cracks in existing international systems reveal a dire need for reforms, envoys to Beijing told a multilateral forum on Sunday.
Addressing these challenges would require greater cooperation and integration between countries, and a “peaceful adaptation” of global institutions, from the World Trade Organization to the UN, Flor said at the annual forum of the Centre for China and Globalisation (CCG), a Beijing-based think tank.
“The way should be to look at a reform that makes our global order fit for purpose, for the tasks and the challenges that we confront,” she said.
“We need to address some of the inefficiencies [of current global frameworks],” Flor added, citing how the UN Security Council was “less able to act” in a time of heightened geopolitical tensions and crisis.
The more we have conflicts with China and among us, the weaker our ability to collectively address some of these issues.”
The war in Ukraine has revealed cracks in the Security Council, which has repeatedly failed to act swiftly and fulfil its responsibility of maintaining international peace and stability.
To that end, China – as a global power and a permanent member of the UN Security Council – had a “really big responsibility” to shape future changes, Flor said.
“Whatever China does matters for the multilateral order as a whole and for our ability to steer reforms in the multilateral system, because the more we have conflicts with China and among us, the weaker our ability to collectively address some of these issues.”
Flor was among ambassadors to China who had gathered for a round-table talk on multilateralism as part of the annual CCG forum in Beijing.
Her views were echoed by Turkish ambassador Ismail Hakki Musa, who said China had a “huge responsibility” to drive reforms of international institutions, which he described as “not representative at all”.
While the existing liberal international order may have prevented a third world war, it had “fallen short of offering sustainable peace and security for all”, he said, adding: “Current global governance mechanisms are unable to address global challenges timely, fairly and effectively.”
Calling for a robust global system based on solidarity rather than polarity, Musa noted that Turkey had continued to call for a reform of the United Nations and other multilateral institutions to create a “just and fair new order”.
Calls for UN reform, particularly for restructuring the Security Council, have grown louder in recent years. The council’s five permanent members – Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States – represent the victors of World War II, and countries including Brazil, Germany, India and Japan have been pushing to join them.
The political, economic, environmental and technological challenges facing the international system indicated the “pressing necessity and inevitability” of a transformation, Musa told the forum, also attended by envoys from New Zealand, Argentina and Estonia.
“I think we almost agree on some inefficiencies of the current system. Let’s not wait for a major conflict in order to reform it,” he said, pointing out that new systems were previously established after such conflicts.
“That’s why we need to reinforce our multipolar system,” he said.
“A very simple way” to do that would be to reinforce, align, and insist on the basic principles of the UN Charter, Toledo said, adding that these should be applied universally, as a compromise would lead to fragmentation and conflict.
“China, as a permanent member of the UN Security Council, has a special responsibility to protect the basic rules, the basic principles of the charter,” he said.
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According to Siyabonga Cwele, the South African ambassador to China, the existing world order is facing challenges like growing unilateralism, geopolitical rivalries, and “at some times blatant violation of international law and application of double standards”.
The result, he said, was a steady erosion of trust between countries that had weakened the ability of the international community to address shared challenges.
While the UN had made significant contributions to issues like poverty and human rights, it must be modernised to be more effective and inclusive, Cwele said.
“We believe that multilateralism, which is the notion of collective solutions, must be at the heart of the engagement between member states … guided by the UN Charter,” he said. “New momentum and political will is then required to strengthen and transform multilateral relations.”
