Wang Yi, special representative of Chinese President Xi Jinping, member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and Chinese foreign minister, addresses the UN Summit of the Future in New York, Sept. 23, 2024. (Photo/Xinhua)

The future is not something to predict, but something to build. The UN Summit of the Future adopted the Pact for the Future to meet the challenges of the 21st century, proposing plans for action in areas of international peace and security to tackle global challenges. The Pact is meant to link nations in tackling challenges ranging from climate change and artificial intelligence to escalating conflicts and increasing inequality and poverty — and improve the lives of the world’s more than 8 billion people.

The special representative of President Xi Jinping, Member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Foreign Minister Wang Yi attended the UN Summit of the Future and delivered a speech titled "Bearing in Mind Our Common Future And Jointly Building a Better Tomorrow". He noted that the future carried the hope of human development. Facing transformation unseen in a century, it is highly relevant to hold the Summit of the Future, adopt the Pact for the Future to galvanize collective efforts for world peace and development, and to map out the future of humanity.

Entering the new era, China has given the answer of the times to the major question of "what kind of world to build and how to build it". China supports the convening of the UN Summit of the Future and calls on the international community to take this opportunity to focus on the common well-being of humankind. With the future in mind, President Xi Jinping has put forward the vision of building a community with a shared future for mankind, advocated high-quality Belt and Road cooperation, and proposed the Global Development Initiative, the Global Security Initiative and the Global Civilization Initiative. These vision and initiatives have provided new solutions for tackling the common challenges of humanity and drawn a new blueprint for building a better world.

The Belt and Road Initiative is the foremost and perhaps the most well-known pillar of China's grand vision of building a global community with a shared future.With world challenges at record levels, the Belt and Road Initiative would like to provide a fair and reasonable, mutually beneficial platform for pragmatic cooperation. As mentioned in the Pact, without international cooperation based on respect for international law, we can neither manage the risks nor seize the opportunities that we face. The challenges are deeply interconnected and far exceed the capacity of any single State alone. Only through strong and sustained international cooperation guided by trust and solidarity for the benefit of all, can challenges be addressed collectively. The Belt and Road Initiative can build bridges for national cooperation and create more opportunities by expanding new and broad space for cooperation in economic, cultural and other fields.

The Global Development Initiative represents the second pillar of China’s vision of creating a globally shared future and was launched to accelerate the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The Pact reaffirmed UN's enduring commitment to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its Sustainable Development Goals. In order to accelerate progress towards achieving the Goals, the Initiative advocates to take concrete political steps and mobilize significant additional financing from all sources for sustainable development, with special attention to the needs of those in special situations and creating opportunities for young people. In terms of poverty in all its forms and dimensions, including extreme poverty, as its eradication is an indispensable requirement for sustainable development, the Initiative calls for people-centered measures and China would like to share its experience in poverty eradication. To combat climate change, the Initiative pursues harmony between man and nature and cultivation of new dynamics for development, which would promote strong, green and healthy global development.

The Global Security Initiative aims to address global security challenges and promote peace and stability by emphasizing international partnership, cooperation, and dialogue. As one of the five main topics of the UN Summit of the Future, international peace and security landscape is undergoing profound transformation. The Pact alerts us that there are increasing and diverse threats to international peace and security, particularly violations of the purposes and principles of the Charter, and growing risks of a nuclear war which could pose an existential threat to humanity. The Initiative supports the global community to redouble their efforts to build and sustain peaceful, inclusive and just societies and address the root causes of conflicts. It also remains commitment to preventive diplomacy, the peaceful settlement of disputes and the importance of dialogue between States. The Initiative hopes to inject more stability and certainty into turbulent and changing times and achieve lasting peace and development in the world.

The Global Civilization Initiative advocates for respect for the diversity of civilizations, the common values of humanity, the importance of inheritance and innovation of civilizations, and cultural exchanges and mutual learning among civilizations. As mentioned in the Pact for the Future, the global community should honor, promote and preserve cultural diversity and cultural heritage, as well as languages, knowledge systems and traditions. In handling relations among civilizations, the Initiative suggests to replace estrangement with exchange, clashes with mutual learning, and superiority with coexistence. All countries should be broad-minded in understanding different civilizations' perceptions of the meaning of values and refrain from imposing their own values and models or engaging in ideological confrontation. Cultures of all countries and nations are flowers in the garden of world civilization, and human civilization is wonderful because of its diversity. Only through the inclusive coexistence of different civilizations and exchanges and mutual learning can the garden of world civilization flourish.

As Chinese proverb says, fragrance will linger on your hands when you give out flowers. China is prepared to move forward hand in hand with the rest of the world in implementing Global Development Initiative, Global Security Initiative and Global Civilization Initiative, promoting the realization of an equal and orderly multi-polar world and inclusive economic globalization, and creating a better future for the global community of shared future.

Zhang Jiuan is an associate research fellow at the Academy of Contemporary China and World Studies; Wu Saixing is a post-graduate student at China University of Political Science and Law.

The article reflects the authors' opinions, and not necessarily the views of iChongqing and Bridging News.