Excellencies,
Ladies and gentlemen, and friends,
I am so delighted to have you here at the reception. Thank you very much for honouring me with your presence today upon my assumption of office.
I am most privileged to be accredited as China's new Permanent Representative to Vienna, a beautiful city of music. Vienna is not unfamiliar to me. I was here with the Chinese Permanent Mission about 17 years ago, and the happy time is still quite vivid in my mind today. There seems little change, at first glance, when coming back this time. There are, however, indeed some remarkable changes upon reflection.
First, the role of multilateral diplomacy and the challenges it faces have never been greater as they are now.
Our world today is undergoing profound changes unseen in a century, with surging trend toward multi-polarity, IT application and cultural diversity, coupled with accelerated transformation of the global governance system, international order and greater balance in global power configuration. And the interests and well-being of people in all countries have never been so closely intertwined as it is today. On the other hand, hegemony and power politics are mounting, multilateralism and multilateral trading system are facing grave challenges.
At this critical juncture of cooperation vis-a-vis confrontation, openness vis-a-vis exclusivity, multilateralism has become ever more relevant, and the United Nations and international organizations, ever more indispensable!
The fundamental norm of multilateralism is to address international issues through consultation on the basis of agreed-rules with each other's interests and concerned taken into consideration. To safeguards the rule-based international order bears very much the interests of whole mankind.
Second, China and the outside world has never been so closely intertwined as it is today with China's unprecedented involvement in multilateral diplomacy.
2018 marks the 40th anniversary of China's reform and opening-up policy, witnessing tremendous changes over the past four decades. Being the second biggest economy with largest foreign exchange reserves, China has undertaken its due responsibility and, over the years, contributed over 30% of the global economic and trade growth rate, thus becoming the major stabilizer and engine of the global economic growth.
Openness brings about progress, and exclusivity breeds backwardness. In the new era, China will remain committed in its efforts to deepen its reform on all fronts and expend its opening-up, and its policy of sharing its development opportunity with other countries will remain unchanged. In the meantime, China will stay committed to firmly support the United Nations and its role, and its policy of firmly supporting multilateralism will remain unchanged.
China has, for its part, deeply involved in work of the UN and other international organizations. China has been firm and unequivocal in undertaking dialogues and consultations in pursuit of enduring peace, and in advancing inclusive, balanced and sustainable development in the spirit of openness.
It has firm and unequivocal in promoting the betterment of the global governance system through multilateralism while committing itself to the vision of consultation, cooperation and benefit for all in global governance.
And it has also been firm and unequivocal in building a new type of international relations featuring mutual respect, fairness and justice and win-win cooperation through partnership. The Belt and Road Initiative, the China-African Cooperation Forum and Shanghai Cooperation Organization are China's dynamic practices to channel its efforts with all other countries towards a new type of international relations and a community with a shared future for mankind.
China's involvement has helped advance the process of multilateral diplomacy, and the achievement in multilateral diplomacy has, in turn, given impetus to China's development. We, for our part, will lend our full support to such a virtuous circle.
Third, Vienna's agenda for multilateral diplomacy has never been so diversified as it is today.
As one of the UN headquarters, Vienna has, over the years, witnessed further expansion of its bodies and organs, with their subjects across wider spectrum, from peaceful uses of nuclear energy to non-proliferation, drug-control to anti-transnational-crimes, industrial sustainable development to peaceful uses of outer space, as well as from anti-corruption to cyber issues. As China's chief negotiator, I personally participated the negotiations of the JCPOA and its subsequent conclusion in Vienna.
Vienna has thus become a major platform for global governance, and there is surely a bigger role for Vienna's multilateral diplomacy, especially on the fronts of advancement of global social governance, building of new international peace and security order, settlement of international hot-spot issues and implementation of 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen,
As China's new Permanent Representative to Vienna, I am keenly aware of my responsibility. I, for my part, will do my utmost to work together with all the colleagues here to further pursue multilateralism for the betterment of the global governance system, and through an intensified cooperation between the Chinese Permanent Mission and other permanent missions here, to help foster a new type of international relation and a community with a shared future for mankind.
In conclusion, I wish to thank you for what you have done to help promote our cooperation here on all fronts, especially by lending your support to my predecessors and Permanent Mission, and I am looking forward to your continued support in the years ahead.
Let's work together and jointly write a new chapter of multilateralism here in Vienna. Thank you!