Chinese vice president meets Guterres, Blinken on sidelines of UNGA session

Chinese Vice President Han Zheng meets with United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on the sidelines of the ongoing 78th session of the UN General Assembly in New York, the United States, Sept. 18, 2023. [Photo by Gao Jie/Xinhua]

UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 18 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Vice President Han Zheng met here Monday with United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, respectively, on the sidelines of the ongoing 78th session of the UN General Assembly.

Han told Guterres that the world today is confronted with accelerated changes unseen in a century with various unstable and uncertain factors intertwined.

The more complex and grim the international situation is, the more necessary it is to uphold genuine multilateralism and the more the world needs a strong United Nations, he said.

The vision of building a community with a shared future for mankind, the Belt and Road Initiative, the Global Development Initiative, the Global Security Initiative and the Global Civilization Initiative -- proposed by Chinese President Xi Jinping -- are highly aligned with the ideals and goals of the United Nations, and have been widely recognized and actively supported by the international community, said Han.

China will, as always, be a builder of world peace, a contributor to global development and a defender of the international order, and support the United Nations in playing a central role in international affairs, he said.

For his part, Guterres thanked China for its firm support for the UN cause, and spoke highly of the important initiatives proposed by the Chinese president.

During his meeting with Blinken, Han said that a healthy and stable China-U.S. relationship is good for the two countries and the world.

Describing China's development as an opportunity rather than a challenge, a gain rather than a risk to the United States, Han said that the two sides may well contribute to each other's progress and achieve common prosperity.

China, he said, maintains consistency and stability in its policy toward the United States, all following the three principles put forward by President Xi Jinping, namely mutual respect, peaceful coexistence, and win-win cooperation in viewing and handling China-U.S. relations.

Han expressed the hope that the United States will work with China to follow through on the important consensus reached by the two heads of state in Bali, Indonesia.

The two sides, he said, need to take practical actions, create favorable conditions and do more to enhance understanding, mutual trust and mutually beneficial cooperation, so as to bring China-U.S. relations back on a healthy and stable track and deliver benefits to both countries and the rest of the world.

Blinken, for his part, said the United States looks forward to strengthening communications with China, managing the differences and advancing cooperation.