Co-Chairs,

China welcomes this first intergovernmental negotiations (IGN) meeting on Security Council reform during the current session of the General Assembly. We expect that, under Co-Charis’ leadership, member states will engage in candid exchanges, build consensus, and jointly advance the reform process along the right track.

China supports necessary and reasonable reform of the Security Council to enhance its authority and efficiency to better respond to crises and challenges. The only correct direction of the reform must be to effectively increase the representation and voice of developing countries. The historical injustice suffered by Africa must be rectified, and special arrangements must be made to meet Africa’s aspirations as a priority. The five clusters are foundational and critical issues as described in General Assembly decision 62/557, and must be tackled through a package solution. China has on many occasions elaborated its positions on the five clusters. In recent years, enhancing the representation of cross-regional groups, such as Arab states and small island developing states, has been incorporated into the Pact for the Future and the Co-Chairs’ Elements Paper as a consensus among member states. This demonstrates that the approach of securing seats for entire cross-regional groups, rather than for specific countries, is fairer and more democratic, and has won broader support. At the same time, more and more countries oppose the practice of one election for a definite life term, and are open to establishing regional and rotating seats. China hopes that the current IGN session will engage in in-depth discussions around these new reform concepts.

Co-Chairs,

The Security Council is the core of the international collective security mechanism. It has a special and important mission in upholding the post-war international order and safeguarding international peace and security. Eighty years ago, in January 1946, the International Military Tribunal for the Far East was formally convened. The Tokyo Trials severely punished Japanese war criminals, upheld international justice, and defended human dignity. It was also a stern warning against any illegal attempt to revive militarism, aggression, and expansion. Yet Japanese militarism has not been thoroughly eradicated. It has mutated and grown in the shadows instead. Japanese right-wing forces are vigorously whitewashing their history of aggression, manifestly denying the historical crimes of the Nanjing Massacre, the forced recruitment of comfort women, and the forced labor of civilians. They have pushed to revise history textbooks in an attempt to rewrite their history of aggression. Several current Japanese leaders have paid homage at the Yasukuni Shrine, a spiritual symbol of militarism, showing reverence for Class-A war criminals. From Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's erroneous remarks on Taiwan and her threat on the use of force against China, to senior Japanese officials' openly advocating for possessing nuclear weapons, to pushing to revise the three national security documents and clamoring to amend the three non-nuclear principles, these actions fully exposed the sinister intentions of Japanese right-wing forces to promote re-militarization and attempt to revive militarism, posing new threats to regional and global peace and security. A country that shows no remorse for its historical crimes, that violates basic norms of international relations, that challenges the outcome of World War II and blatantly tramples upon the post-war international order, cannot shoulder the responsibility of safeguarding international peace and security, cannot gain the trust of the international community, and it has fundamentally no qualifications to seek a permanent membership on the Security Council.

China, as a permanent Council member and a responsible major country, stands ready to work with all peace-loving nations and peoples to resolutely defend the victorious outcome of World War II and post-war international order, jointly uphold the authority and unity of the Security Council, and play a constructive role in international peace and security.

Thank you.