President Xi Jinping yesterday addressed the general debate of the 76th session of the United Nations General Assembly via video link, calling for bolstering confidence and jointly addressing global threats and challenges to build a better world for all.
The following highlights of his statement were reported by Xinhua News Agency:
- The current pandemic may appear overwhelming, but humanity will surely overcome it and prevail.
- It falls on each and every responsible statesman to answer the questions of our times and make a historical choice with confidence, courage and a sense of mission.
- Facing the severe shocks of Covid-19, we need to work together to steer global development toward a new stage of balanced, coordinated and inclusive growth.
- We should safeguard and improve people’s livelihoods and protect and promote human rights through development, and make sure that development is for the people and by the people, and that its fruits are shared among the people.
- A world of peace and development should embrace civilisations of various forms, and must accommodate diverse paths to modernisation.
- Democracy is not a special right reserved to an individual country, but a right for the people of all countries to enjoy.
- One country’s success does not have to mean another country’s failure, and the world is big enough to accommodate common development and progress of all countries.
- We need to pursue dialogue and inclusiveness over confrontation and exclusion.
The top level meeting, which started on Tuesday and will end on 30 September, drew many of the world’s foremost leaders, including UN Secretary-General António Guterres, US President Joe Biden and Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi.
Climate change, Covid-19 and security are the dominant discussion topics during the annual gathering, which has taken on a hybrid format after being forced almost entirely online last year.
