UN, China natural partners in peace

The United Nations welcomes the increasingly important role China has been playing across many areas of our (the UN's) work, including international peace and security. We share China's view that peace and development go hand in hand. We welcome China's determination to promote the reform of global governance with the UN at its core. We see China - with its long-term strategy of peaceful development, reform and opening-up - as our natural partner in this endeavor.

Our efforts to strengthen the UN's ability to prevent and resolve armed conflicts in fact mirror China's pursuit of the "3Cs" - comprehensive, cooperative and common security.

Regrettably, prevention does not always work. However, even in cases where it has clearly failed, such as Syria or the Central African Republic, good offices offer a potentially successful path back to security and reconciliation: diplomacy must continue to prod the parties to step back from the brink and face each other around a negotiating table. Political challenges lie at the center of most conflicts and are the key both to their prevention and their resolution. Only by finding political solutions can we ensure that peace, when it does come, actually holds over the long term.

Along with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, I will be in Geneva for the peace conference on Syria. We have worked very hard to get both sides to the negotiation table. We still don't know if we will succeed. But we see this as the best hope for achieving a political solution that can end the appalling violence in Syria.

The UN secretary-general has long emphasized that there is no military resolution to the Syrian crisis, and the attempts both of the government and the opposition forces to impose a military solution has created a humanitarian catastrophe. It should be obvious to all that the cost of a military approach is simply too high.

We are grateful to China for supporting the June 30, 2012 Geneva communiqu, which holds out the promise of a political resolution in Syria. We are also grateful to China for supporting the removal of (and helping remove) chemical weapons from Syria.

Experience over the years has taught us a number of lessons about what works in preventive diplomacy and mediation as critical elements. China, too, has accumulated important knowledge in this regard. We are highly interested in hearing its views, learning from its lessons and exchanging experiences.

We have learnt that reaching a trouble spot early is critical. This is not simply about getting the necessary information at an early stage of a conflict, but also about mobilizing rapid, effective and unified diplomatic action as soon as opportunities present themselves. As a permanent member of the UN Security Council, China's role is essential, because we need Security Council support for early engagement.