Chinese President Hu Jintao made a four-point proposal in New York Thursday for building a harmonious world in his speech at the United Nations Summit.
Countries could only create a harmonious world with lasting peace and common prosperity when they rally closely together to seize the opportunities and take on the challenges facing them, Hu said while elaborating his proposal before world leaders who are gathering here to mark the 60th anniversary of the establishment of the UN.
Firstly, he said multilateralism should be upheld to realize common security. "We must abandon the Cold War mentality, cultivate a new security concept featuring trust, mutual benefit, equality and cooperation, and build a fair and effective collective security mechanism aimed at preventing war and conflict and safeguarding world peace and security."
Hu said the United Nations plays an irreplaceable role in international cooperation to ensure global security. "Such a role can only be strengthened and must not in any way be weakened," he stressed.
The Chinese president also called on all nations to encourage and support efforts to settle international disputes or conflicts through consultations and negotiations.
"We should all oppose acts of encroachment on other countries' sovereignty, forceful interference in a country's internal affairs, and willful use or threat of military force," Hu said.
Secondly, he said mutually beneficial cooperation should be upheld to achieve common prosperity. As economic globalization has made countries' interests intertwined, their respective development depends more closely on global development, the Chinese president said.
"We should work actively to establish and improve a multilateral trading system that is open, fair and non-discriminatory," said Hu, who also suggested worldwide energy dialogue and cooperation be stepped up to jointly maintain energy security and energy market stability.
Developed countries should shoulder a greater responsibility for a universal, coordinated and balanced development in the world while developing countries should make fuller use of their own advantages to develop themselves, Hu said.
Thirdly, Hu said the spirit of inclusiveness must be upheld to build a world where all civilizations coexist harmoniously and accommodate each other.
"In the course of human history, all civilizations have, in their own way, made positive contributions to the overall human progress," he noted.
"Uniformity, if imposed on them, can only take away their vitality and cause them to become rigid and decline. The world's civilizations may differ in age, but none is better or more superior more others," he said.
All countries have the right to independently choose their own social systems and paths of development and this right should be respected, said the Chinese president.
"In this way, countries will go for mutual emulation instead of deliberate exclusion, for mutual learning of respective strong points instead of making fetish a particular model," he explained.
Hu called for the enhancement of dialogue and exchange between civilizations so as to allow cultures to complement one another and develop together by seeking common ground while putting aside differences.
"We should endeavor to preserve the diversity of civilizations in the spirit of equality and openness, make international relations more democratic and jointly build a harmonious world where all civilizations coexist and accommodate each other."
Fourthly, Hu said the United Nations need "rational and necessary reform" to maintain its authority, improve its efficacy and give a better scope to its role in meeting new threats and new challenges.
The UN reform "may be conducted step by step", focusing on easier tasks first and more difficult ones later in order to achieve maximized benefits,he said.
He said the UN should make a strong commitment to give a priority to the question of development in its reform program.
As to the reform of the UN Security Council, Hu stressed that a priority should be given to the increase in the representation of the developing countries and allow more countries, especially small and medium-sized countries, to participate in the decision-making of the world body.
"With the interests of many countries at stake, the reform should allow full consultations before any decision is made on the basis of the broadest consensus."