Envoy looks forward to further China-UN teamwork

As part of evolving China-United Nations collaborations, the recent China visit by Csaba Korosi, president of the 77th Session of the UN General Assembly, marks "a particularly auspicious beginning to the Year of the Rabbit", the UN's top envoy in China Siddharth Chatterjee said.

Chatterjee, UN development system resident coordinator in China, said that Korosi "was very encouraged by China's readiness to cooperate on the issues he raised, particularly advancing multilateralism, the General Assembly processes and UN reforms, as well as the upcoming UN 2023 Water Conference in March" when meeting with senior Chinese officials.

Korosi visited Beijing and Zhengzhou, Henan province, from Wednesday through Saturday. The UN's Sustainable Development Goals, along with the water conference scheduled next month, were high on his agenda.

"The meetings got off to an excellent start, and I am grateful to the government of China for the hospitality, generosity and courtesy extended to Mr Korosi," Chatterjee said in an exclusive interview.

Envisioning the potential highlights of the cooperation framework between China and the UN this year, Chatterjee mentioned three pillars, all starting with the letter "p" — "people and prosperity", "planet" and "partnership".

Emphasizing the need to safeguard China's major achievement of lifting more than 770 million people out of abject poverty over the past 40 years, the envoy said the UN is committed to supporting China in its 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25) in order to "reduce inequalities between urban and rural areas".

Supporting President Xi Jinping's vision for the country to achieve carbon peak before 2030 and carbon neutrality before 2060, Chatterjee said, "We can build more alliances of businesses to come together in the drive toward low-carbon economic growth. Public-private partnerships will be critical, and China can serve as a model for the rest of the world."

He endorsed China's partnerships with the African Union and African countries, saying that "the UN can act as a platform to help bring all of this together". A lot of progress, particularly in 2022, has been made in areas such as climate change, food security, industrialization and low-carbon economic growth, he added.

Speaking on global challenges, Chatterjee highlighted the COVID-19 pandemic, rising conflicts, the climate crisis and growing inequalities. He said that China "has done very well from a public health perspective in managing its COVID-19 response", and that he "equally commends China on opening up the economy".

"China has passed the long winter of the COVID-19 pandemic, and we're in a year of hope. I think the Year of the Rabbit is a beacon of hope," he said.

Chatterjee thanked the Chinese government once again for its push for multilateralism. "China has become a very strong supporter of the UN global budget as well as the UN peacekeeping budget," he said.

"Multilateralism must be reinforced, otherwise rising conflicts, the climate crisis, pandemics will not be stopped. ... We need more cooperation, more diplomacy, rather than confrontation and competition," he added.

This year marks the 10th anniversary of President Xi proposing the Belt and Road Initiative.

"I see the BRI as one of the most important initiatives that China took," Chatterjee said, referring to transportation facilities China has helped build in Africa. He has worked as UN resident coordinator in Kenya.

"The African Continental Free Trade Area will not be possible unless Africa is physically and digitally connected. With a population expected to reach 2.5 billion, Africa will be the driver of future economic growth and prosperity in the world," he said.

"I hope the year 2023 becomes a turning point, where we will see more collaborations between member states and between companies to advance the BRI into a bigger ambition of really connecting the whole world," he added.