The United Nations should “play a leading role” in the international efforts to confront terrorism, said the Chinese Foreign Minister at a UN Security Council summit.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi made those comments after a September 22 report from China’s Communist-run Global Times revealed that Uighur Muslim radicals from Xinjiang have joined Islamic State (IS, also known as ISIS and ISIL) militants in Syria and Iraq.
So far, China has not provided assistance to the U.S.-led military efforts against IS in Iraq and Syria.
“The United Nations and its Security Council have to play a leading role in the global war on terrorism,” said the Chinese foreign minister on Wednesday, China’s state-run news agency, Xinhua, reported yesterday. “This is the only way to maintain unity, achieve effective coordination and take concerted actions.”
Wang was speaking at the September 24 UN Security Council summit on terrorism in New York.
“First, we must ensure sound coordination,” he said.
Wang called for “an integrated approach that includes measures taken in the political, security, economic, financial, intelligence and ideological fields with a view to addressing both the symptoms and root causes of terrorism, especially removing its root causes and breeding ground.”
He said the international community should formulate “new thinking and new steps” in fighting terrorism, adding, “First, we should step up information gathering and sharing.”
The UN Security Council, a 15-nation body that includes the U.S. and China as a permanent members, unanimously adopted a resolution to confront the threat posed by foreign terrorist fighters.
According to a September 24 statement from the UN council, the resolution “condemned violent extremism and decided that Member States shall, consistent with international law, prevent the ‘recruiting, organizing, transporting or equipping of individuals who travel to a State other than their States of residence or nationality for the purpose of the perpetration, planning of, or participation in terrorist acts.'”
The Council added that, in supporting the resolution, “Wang described recent terrorist attacks in his country and said that Middle East conflicts drew fighters like magnets. Those individuals then spread violence around the world.”
Wang “pledged his country’s support for the global combat against terrorism,” stated the UN Security Council.
“Military actions must comply with the United Nations Charter. Double standards must be avoided and terrorism must not be connected with any religious or ethnic group,” according to Wang.
President Obama, who presided over the Council’s summit, said, “Resolutions alone will not be enough.”
“Promises on paper cannot keep us safe. Lofty rhetoric and good intentions will not stop a single terrorist attack,” he continued. “The words spoken here today must be matched and translated into action, into deeds — concrete action, within nations and between them, not just in the days ahead, but for years to come.” Nevertheless, Obama acknowledged that “the historic resolution that we just adopted enshrines our commitment to meet this challenge.”
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