Mr. President,

Over the past one year, the United Nations and the whole international community have made fresh efforts in assisting Africa to prevent conflicts and promote economic development. The Security Council has been continuously giving priority to solving hotspot issues and maintaining regional peace in Africa. The General Assembly's Open-ended Ad Hoc Working Group has also done some useful work in this regard. However, conflicts in some places of African region have not yet been put to an end. There are a lot of difficulties for the fight against poverty, illiteracy and diseases.

Conflicts in the African region have complex causes. Some have grown out of territorial, religious and ethnical disputes left over from colonial times; others have their roots in real issues such as poverty, backwardness and lack of capacity to keep peace. Therefore, an integrated approach has to be adopted, in light of the situation on the ground, to address not only the conflicts but also their root causes. In our view, nobody in the world knows better than Africans themselves as to how to seek a fundamental solution to African conflicts. It is noticeable that regional organizations such as African Union, ECOWAS and SADC as well as African countries concerned are making unremitting efforts in solving and easing the conflicts. The international community should therefore take real action in providing necessary political, economic and financial support in an effort to strengthen the capacity of African countries in areas of conflict prevention, peace-keeping and post-conflict peace-building. All efforts by the United Nations and the international community to the same end must conform with the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations, the conditions in the places of conflict and fully respect for the will of African countries and peoples.

Poverty, backwardness and economic underdevelopment stand as a fundamental cause for armed conflict and instability in relevant regions of Africa. It can well be said that the issue of Africa, in the final analysis, is a development issue. At present, developing countries are facing daunting tasks in realizing the development goals set by the United Nations Millennium Declaration. African countries have even more difficulties in this aspect, due to the worsening of their poverty and diseases. To realize durable peace in Africa, attention must be given not only to promoting solutions to hotspot issues but also, more fundamentally, to vigorously helping African countries to achieve development. Therefore, the United Nations should, in active cooperation with relevant efforts by African countries themselves, work harder, make more inputs and play a bigger role in the promotion of sustainable development in Africa. The International Conference on Financing for Development and the World Summit on Sustainable Development to be held next year could be important opportunities for promoting the fulfillment of the development goals in the Millennium Declaration. We hope the two conferences will be able achieve substantive progress in meeting the special needs of Africa and promoting sustainable development in the region. At the same time, we would like to strongly appeal to the developed countries to take real action to meet as soon as possible the ODA targets of 0.7% of their gross national product, increase investments in Africa, expand debt-reduction programs and improve market access for African products so as to integrate Africa into the mainstream of world trade and economic development.

Mr. President,

The Chinese Government has all along attached importance and given support to African countries and peoples in their efforts to realize peace and development. As a developing country, China also has its own difficulties and issues to solve on the road to development. And that is why China can well understand what African countries are dealing with, and are willing to do all it can to render help and assistance. In this connection, China attaches importance to the follow-ups to the China-Africa Cooperation Forum which was held last year in Beijing. We have so far signed debt exemption protocols with 21 African countries and expanded the personnel training programs for African countries. Furthermore, the first high-level consultation on the follow-ups to the Forum has been held, which adopted in principle the Mechanism and Procedure of the Follow-ups to the China-Africa Cooperation Forum as well as other documents. We are confident that as the work in this regard moves forward, the friendly cooperation between China and African countries will be further consolidated and developed.

Thank you, Mr. President.