Li Keqiang Meets with UN Secretary-General António Guterres

On the afternoon of November 13, 2022 local time, Premier Li Keqiang of the State Council met with UN Secretary-General António Guterres in Phnom Penh.

Li Keqiang expressed that the United Nations (UN) is the most important institution for upholding multilateralism. China always attaches great importance to the vital role of the UN in maintaining world peace and promoting common development. To uphold multilateralism under the current complex and inconsistent  international circumstances is  fundamentally to uphold the purposes and principles of the UN Charter and the authoritative role of the UN in handling international affairs. Providing support and input for the UN is to contribute to the world peace and development. China appreciates the UN’s new achievements under the leadership of Secretary-General. China will, as always, strengthen cooperation with the UN and its agencies, actively support and participate in works under the UN, and work with other parties to uphold the purposes and principles of the UN Charter, norms of international law, and international fairness and justice.

Li Keqiang pointed out that poverty inevitably causes impact against stability. Unless the North-South gap narrowed, it will be difficult to avoid conflicts and turbulence. China commends the UN for its focus on the development issues of developing countries and its active assistance to them in alleviating debt burden, responding to climate change, improving people's well-being and realizing sustainable development. As a permanent member of the UN Security Council and the largest developing country, China is ready to maintain close communication and coordination with the UN, continue its  support for developing countries with the best of its capacity to respond to climate change within the framework of South-South cooperation, and play a constructive role in addressing the debt relief issue of African countries within the Group of Twenty (G20) framework.

Guterres said that cooperation between China and the UN is an important pillar of multilateralism. The UN appreciates China's tremendous efforts in promoting multilateralism, and speaks highly of China's contributions to advancing UN agendas on climate change, sustainable development and so on. He said that the UN hopes to deepen cooperation with China to help developing countries respond to climate change and ease debt burden, to safeguard international food and energy security, and gain support from more countries for various UN agendas. The UN opposes economic decoupling and calls on countries to bridge differences through dialogue and jointly tackle global challenges. The UN firmly supports China's important role in South-South cooperation and is ready to step up cooperation with China in this regard.

Xiao Jie was present at the meeting.