China urges UN Assembly to break new ground when setting future development goals

The new sustainable development agenda should advance people’s wellbeing, promote inclusivity and ensure implementation, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told the United Nations General Assembly, delivering his country’s annual address to the world body.

One of the top priorities for China and the 192 other Member States will be to define a new roadmap that will guide development work staring in January 2016, after the deadline for the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

“The international community should, building on past progress and breaking new ground, adopt more effective plans and take more robust actions to advance the common development of mankind,” Mr. Wang said.

He noted also that the agenda should aim to enhance global partnerships on development and improve implementation tools and mechanisms.

One of the priority areas of the current MDGs is environment, which Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon highlighted with his Climate Summit earlier in the week at which China was represented by Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli.

In his address today, Mr. Wang voiced optimism that the political momentum generated by the Summit will translate into “effective actions to step up international cooperation” on climate change leading to talks next year on a successor to the Kyoto Protocol.

Among other issues raised in his remarks, Mr. Wang called for renewed efforts to resolve the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula in an “objective and impartial way.”

“The Six Party Talks remain the only viable and effective way to resolve the nuclear issue,” the Foreign Minister said in reference to talks involving also the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), the Republic of Korea, Japan, Russia and the United States.

“The pressing task now is to restart the talks as soon as possible,” Mr. Wang said.

He is one of 196 world representatives addressing the UN body this week under the theme of “Delivering on and Implementing a Transformative Post-2015 Development Agenda” as well as urgent crises ranging from the ongoing conflicts in Syria, Iraq, Ukraine and South Sudan.