(By Permanent Mission to the United Nations)
2007/01/12?
Mr. President,
China is firmly opposed to adopting the draft resolution on
Myanmar by the Security Council. In order to avoid taking vote on
the draft, China has engaged in extensive discussions and
consultations with all Council members, especially the sponsor.
Regrettably, our suggestions and goodwill failed to prevail.
Today's meeting is the last option that China wishes to see. Before
the vote, China would therefore reiterate the following principled
positions.
First, like the rest of the international community, China
sincerely hopes that Myanmar enjoys economic development, social
harmony, rule of law and inclusive democracy. This is in the
interest of the Myanmar people, all countries in Southeast Asia and
the entire international community. Undeniably, Myanmar is now
faced with many challenges in political, economic and social areas,
and some problems are quite serious. But no country is perfect and
every country will have to go through a process of constant
improvement. Therefore, China supports the continuing efforts of
the Myanmar government and all parties in the country for inclusive
dialogues and national reconciliation. So far, the international
community and ASEAN in particular have offered many constructive
recommendations to Myanmar, which could serve as important
parameters for improving the situation in the country. China
sincerely hopes and expects that the Myanmar government would give
due considerations to these recommendations, listen to the call of
its own people, learn from the good practice of others, and speed
up the process of dialogues and reforms, so as to achieve
prosperity for its nation, bring benefit to its people and
contribute to peace, stability and development in Southeast
Asia.
Secondly, China encourages and supports the Secretary-General's
good offices under the mandate of the General Assembly. In recent
years, there is rising interest and concern by international
community on Myanmar, which is quite understandable. China always
believes that the United Nations can play a constructive role in
this regard. Thanks to the efforts by various parties, Under
Secretary-General Gambari paid, at Myanmar's sincere invitation,
two visits to the country, had frank talks with Myanmar leaders and
achieved certain progress. While the UN Secretariat is at the
transitional period, China supports the Secretary-General to
appoint his special representative on Myanmar as soon as possible.
We are also looking forward to another visit by Mr. Gambari, and
hope that he would continue his dialogue with Myanmar and enhance
the mutual trust and confidence. As Mr. Gambari emphasized in his
briefing to the Security Council last November, Secretary-General's
good offices are a process of dialogues and engagement, which needs
time and patience. China sincerely calls upon the international
community and the Myanmar government to cherish the current sound
interaction between each other, constructively support
Secretary-General's good offices, and work together to gradually
achieve long-term stability and development in Myanmar. The tenth
ASEAN summit will be held soon. China will, as always, support
ASEAN to play a leading role in addressing the issue of
Myanmar.
Thirdly, the Myanmar issue is mainly an internal affair of a
sovereign state. The present domestic situation in Myanmar does not
pose a threat to international or regional peace and security. No
one will dispute that Myanmar is indeed faced with a series of
grave challenges such as refugees, child labor, HIV/AIDS, human
rights, and drugs. But similar problems exist in many other
countries as well. If only because Myanmar is encountering this or
that kind of problems in the above areas, it should be arbitrarily
labeled as a prominent or potential threat to regional security, be
included in the agenda of the Council and followed by adoption of a
resolution, then situation of all other 191 UN Member States may
also need to be considered by the Security Council. Such approach
is obviously neither logical nor reasonable. As a matter of fact,
none of Myanmar's immediate neighbors, the entire ASEAN members or
most Asia-Pacific countries believe the notion that the current
situation in Myanmar poses a threat to regional peace and security.
Since various relevant UN agencies have already proceeded their
discussions on Myanmar issue and the primary responsibility
entrusted by the UN Charter to the Security Council is to maintain
world peace and security, China holds that there is no need for the
Security Council to get involved and nor should it take action on
the issue of Myanmar. Otherwise, it will not only exceed the
mandates of the Council, but also hinder the discussions by other
relevant UN agencies, and bring no good to Secretary-General's good
offices.
Mr. President,
It needs to emphasize that China, as an immediate neighbor of
Myanmar and a Security Council member from the Asia-Pacific region,
has attached no less importance to the situation in Myanmar than
anybody else. Although Myanmar's domestic political process may not
achieve as much result as expected, the progress is undeniably
moving on, slowly but steadily. As an old Chinese saying goes, one
cannot enjoy eating hot bean curd if being too anxious. While the
intention of the international community is sincere and good, it
has to go with practical and feasible means and ways, catering to
the national condition of Myanmar. Otherwise, there would be
unwanted and undesirable consequences. Moreover, if the situation
in Myanmar becomes turbulent as a result of external interference,
the primary victims will certainly be the people of Myanmar and its
neighboring countries. Therefore, China, together with other
countries in the region, wishes more to see Myanmar enjoy political
stability, economic development and ethnic harmony. China has
always adopted a responsible approach, and made vigorous efforts to
encourage and facilitate the Myanmar government to address its
problems step by step. It is also our consistent position that the
internal affairs of Myanmar should be handled mainly and
independently by the Myanmar government and Myanmar people through
consultation. The international community can offer all kinds of
constructive advice and assistance, but should refrain from
arbitrary interference.
Based on the above principled position, China strongly opposes
the inclusion of Myanmar into the agenda of the Council, and is
firmly against adopting any Security Council resolution on Myanmar.
China therefore cannot but vote against the draft resolution before
us.
Thank you, Mr. President.