State Councilor Tang Jiaxuan elaborated the Chinese government's position on the reform of the United Nations when meeting with the Arab representatives to the Second Senior Officials Meeting of the China-Arab Cooperation Forum on June 15.

Tang Jiaxuan said China supports the reform of the United Nations and the China's stance is based on the consideration of the future of the UN and the common interest of all member states. We believe any reform should highlight this consideration and prioritize the issue of development. In 2000 the UN passed the Millennium Development Goals with the joint efforts of all member states and we should take the important opportunity of the 60th anniversary of the founding of the UN to further implement the Millennium Development Goals. If they were simply focused on arguing about the expansion of the Security Council, the various parties would not be able to concentrate on discussing the issue of development during the summit in September, which may ultimately result in a fruitless conference. This would lead to huge loss to most countries which can never be made up and we should not allow this to happen.

Tang said the reform is aimed to strengthening the United Nations rather than the other way round. All plans should be based on the views of the majority of the countries and broad consensus should be reached. This is the reflection of the democratization of international relations. To force a vote on or allow the adoption of an immature reform plan will definitely help escalate the confrontation between different countries. The UN will also find it hard to conduct its work and its authority and role will be largely weakened. We are not willing to see such a result and therefore we should try our best to avoid it.

Tang stressed that the reason why the expansion of the Security Council was put onto the agenda is that the representation of the vast number of developing countries including the Arab states is significantly insufficient. To ensure developing nations to have a louder voice in major international affairs is not only the basis but also the development direction for the reform of the Security Council. This is a principle that we must follow and China cannot accept the result of any reform against this principle.