Divisiveness root cause of global crises: China Daily editorial

The fierce contestation in the United Nations Security Council Open Debate on Multilateral Cooperation in the Interest of a More Just, Democratic and Sustainable World Order served to demonstrate the necessity of this event, which was convened at the UN Headquarters on Tuesday.

An opportunity for the countries to have an in-depth exchange of views on the core issues related to the subject of the debate, the event instead exposed why the world body has been so ineffective in addressing so many hotspot issues. These acute issues would not have become what they are today had all the UN members upheld the UN Charter as the bedrock of the world order.

That the activity was convened at the initiative of Russia, presided over by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, prompted representatives of some countries to turn the open debate into a collective attack on Russia over the Ukraine crisis. The beleaguering of one country by a group of "like-minded" countries in the UNSC epitomizes the root cause of the crises the UNSC is supposed to find solutions to.

It is not a coincidence that most of these all-your-fault accusers are members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, or NATO allies, as the United States-led alliance has been trying to divide the world into us and others. Not content with attacking Russia for being responsible for the crisis, this NATO clique tried again to drag China into their game, claiming it is enabling Russia's "special military operation".

This flies in the face of China always upholding a neutral stance on the Ukraine crisis, and it working with all peace-loving nations to promote a political settlement of the crisis, and the establishment of a workable and balanced mechanism for lasting peace in Europe.

But the UNSC debate was not supposed to be about the Ukraine crisis, as Chinese Ambassador to the UN Fu Cong hinted on Tuesday, it was intended to pool efforts to build a more just and equitable international order that can promote the common development of all countries, take care of the rational security concerns of all parties and foster equality and mutual learning of different cultures and civilizations.

China has put forward initiatives for global development, security and dialogue among civilizations as prompters for collective actions that can address the development, peace and trust deficits that plague the world. It is these deficits and the global governance deficit that are causing most of the conflicts in today's world.

Acting on these proposals in alignment with the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence, China has formed many partnerships with other countries, regions and international organizations in a bid to encourage efforts to establish a community with a shared future for humanity.

Wednesday marked the 10th anniversary of the vision of a community with a shared future between China and Latin America and the Caribbean states. Although the "like-minded" countries in the US club try to smear that as a geopolitical tool of Beijing to make trouble in the US' " backyard" and a threat to the "rules-based international order", that vision has resulted in a practical framework for the two sides to strengthen their cooperation and bring tangible benefits to their peoples.

Representative of the fruits of China's South-South cooperation, the building of a China and Latin America and the Caribbean states community with a shared future is an important contribution to the formation of a just, democratic and sustainable world order, which upholds sovereign equality, mutual respect, common security and common development, and enhances the representation and the voice of developing countries. 

All countries should uphold fairness and justice, and embrace openness and inclusiveness, and dialogue on an equal footing. They should reject and discard the practice of upholding "rules" and "values" that are selective and exclusive.