Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi used the occasion of his speech at the Munich Security Conference on February 14,, which was occurring in what has become a very uncertain situation, with a clear proposal for overcoming the present chaos. “Over the past year,” Wang said, “the international landscape was marked by growing transformations and turbulence, and the law of the jungle and unilateralism went rampant. Humanity has come to a new crossroads for the cause of peace and development.”
“At such a juncture,” he went on, “President Xi Jinping proposed the Global Governance Initiative (GGI), and called for following the five principles of sovereign equality, international rule of law, multilateralism, the people-centered approach, and real actions, with a view to jointly building a more just and equitable global governance system. The GGI aligns with the progressive trend of the times, represents the biggest common ground of the world’s nations, and has thus received widespread response from the international community shortly after its announcement.”
He underlined the importance of the United Nations as the basis of stability in the postwar order and as an important outcome of the war victory, but noted the need for it to be “revitalized.” “The reason why the international system is not functioning well enough lies not with the U.N. itself,” he said, “but rather with a certain country seeking to magnify differences and disagreements, put itself above everyone else, stoke bloc confrontation and even revive the Cold War mentality. All these have eroded the foundation of trust, worsened the atmosphere for cooperation, and impeded the functioning of international institutions.”
