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Speech by Commissioner Ferrero-Waldner - The EU, China and the Quest for a Multilateral World

The EU, China and the Quest for a Multilateral World

Your Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

First let me thank the Institut Français de Relations Internationales and the China Institute of International Studies for the kind invitation to address you. I would also like to thank Ambassador Guan Chengyuan and Ambassador Ma Zhengang for being here today to help us celebrate the 30th anniversary of EU-China relations.

I know you have had a long day of lively discussion, and that Ambassador Zhengang and I are all that stands between you and the reception, so I will be brief!

A 30th anniversary is an important moment in any relationship. It's a time to celebrate the past and to look to the future. Both China and the EU have developed enormously in the last 30 years, and our relationship has changed beyond all recognition. What was primarily a trading relationship back in 1975 now embraces all the elements of a strategic partnership. Perhaps most telling is China's participation with the EU in two international projects at the cutting edge of technological innovation, ITER, the project to create the world's first nuclear fusion plant, and Galileo, the European satellite navigation system.

And let me highlight one fact which symbolises the intensity of our partnership - if you multiply the 30 years of our relationship by 7, you come close to the number of trips European Commission officials made to China last year. In other words we made 206 trips, or 4 every week!

That is an impressive figure. Some of you may be wondering whether the EU's current internal difficulties will prevent us from matching it this year. Our partners have certainly been asking me what it all means for them. Will the EU enter a period of introspection? Will it lose interest in its international partners? Is it going to pull its weight in addressing the global challenges we face?

Allow me to reassure you. We are still committed to creating an outward-looking EU, and we will continue to play a leading role in world affairs. Whatever our internal difficulties, we will not allow them to distract us from our international commitments. The trend towards increasing our global strength must continue, first because our citizens support it, but also because so do a majority of the world's citizens.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

China and the EU are both global players, and as such we have a responsibility to work together to address the most important challenges facing our world today. Let me mention just three of these: climate change; the non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction; and conflict resolution.

China knows better than most the threats posed by environmental degradation and we welcome your support for the international efforts to combat climate change. We want to work together on designing a future climate regime, and I know we'll discuss it when we meet at our Summit in September.

On non-proliferation, our joint declaration last year provided the basis for mutual consultation and coordination in the framework of the United Nations. The EU very much counts on China's support and influence in settling the worrying question of nuclear proliferation in North Korea.

As for conflict resolution, China has a special role to play in ensuring peace and stability in its neighbourhood - just as we do in Europe. Global powers are first and foremost regional powers, and have a particular responsibility to their neighbours. We welcome China's positive role in the six-party talks with North Korea, and its growing cooperation with India. The role China played in defusing tensions between India and Pakistan in 2002 earned it enormous respect. There have also been encouraging signs of increased contacts with Taiwan, and we hope this will soon develop into direct dialogue.

On the other hand, there is still much work to do to improve relations between China and Japan. And any effort China could make to persuade the regime in Burma/ Myanmar to pursue national reconciliation and progress towards democracy would be a tremendous contribution to peace and stability in the region.

Dear friends,

As global players, China and the EU are obviously interested in the nature of global politics in the 21st century. Some have talked of building a "multipolar world". For the EU, however, it is not the number of poles which counts, but rather the basis on which they operate. Our vision is a world governed by rules created and monitored by multilateral institutions. And I know China shares this approach.

This is where I come to the title of today's conference, our contribution to the "quest for a multilateral world". However, for a multilateral system to work, multilateral institutions must function properly and must be up to the challenges of the 21st century. So our quest should not only be for a multilateral world, but for effective multilateral institutions to govern it.

If there is one message you should remember from today it is this: as global actors, China and the EU are in a position to shape the world we live in. But this also means we have responsibilities - not least for multilateralism's success. We must rise to the challenge, and work together to promote our shared vision of an effective multilateral system.

As with all important quests, there is some urgency. 2005 is a crunch year for our multilateral institutions, with the United Nations Summit in September, and the WTO meeting in December.

The UN is the pivot of the multilateral system. But to keep it there, we need far-reaching reform. We must empower the UN to respond effectively to future global challenges. China and the EU should take a leadership role and drive these reform efforts. Three areas deserve our particular attention.

First, human rights. It is time to move from the era of standard setting to one of implementation. The current set-up is not up to the task. We need an entirely new mechanism with much greater resources - which is why we support the Secretary General's proposal for a Human Rights Council. We look to China for support in its creation and we stand ready to help it implement the core human rights conventions - a necessary condition for membership of the Council.

Second, peacebuilding. The proposed Peace Building Commission would bridge the gap between post-conflict assistance and long-term stabilisation and development. It should significantly reduce the potential for further conflict by providing a more effective, prompt and coherent approach to consolidating peace, and by prevention the resumption of conflict through setting countries on the road to sustainable development.

Third, given the enormity of the threats we face from environmental degradation and pollution, we should support the Secretary General's call for a more integrated structure of international environmental governance. The current UN Environment Programme should be turned into a UN Agency for the environment.

Turning to the WTO, progress in the Doha "development" round of talks has been slow. We need to create a more development-friendly trade regime which facilitates poverty reduction and sustainable development. But achieving that goal has proven difficult. One missing part of the puzzle is for more advanced developing countries to engage intensively on market access in industrial products. If China and the EU cooperate together in this, and both take a leadership role in implementing current commitments and in pursuing the Doha talks, a successful outcome in December is possible.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I am confident that our relations will go from strength to strength and that as partners on the international stage we will achieve more by working together than we ever could apart. Yet we should also be realistic. Both of us must work hard to retain our position as global actors, and so continue to wield global influence. The EU must implement its Lisbon agenda for stronger economic growth and push for more coherence in its foreign policy. China's development, which the EU's wholeheartedly welcomes, will not be sustainable unless it is accompanied by political reform. We look forward to China taking steps like ratifying the International Covenant on Civil and Political rights and releasing prisoners of conscience.

We must both move quickly to address these issues and to use the opportunities open to us in 2005 to pursue our quest for effective multilateralism. It is our responsibility as global powers to do so.

Let me close with the words of Confucius:

"To put the world in order, we must first put the nation in order; to put the nation in order, we must put the family in order; to put the family in order, we must cultivate our personal life; and to cultivate our personal life, we must first set out hearts right."

I believe China and the EU have their hearts set right, and that as strategic partners acting together we are a powerful force for putting the world in good, multilateral order. That way, a more just, prosperous and secure world for all is within our grasp.

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