U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has held talks with Chinese leaders, including President Xi Jinping and Foreign Minister Wang Yi, in Beijing after arriving there on Wednesday on his sixth oficial visit to China.
Ban's discussions with the Chinese leaders covered a range of topics central to the U.N. agenda regarding peace and security, human rights and development, as well as the situation in Syria and the Korean peninsula, according to a U.N. press release.
In his talks with President Xi Jinping, Ban commended China for its commitment to multilateralism, its strong support to the U.N. and the country's expanding role and contribution to Organization's work, including its engagement in addressing climate challenges.
The U.N. chief also commended China for its leadership in promoting the eight anti-poverty targets known as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and its own achievements in this area, notably on poverty alleviation and reducing infant and maternal mortality rates.
In terms of regional stability, Ban thanked Xi for China's "crucial role" in helping to reduce tensions on the Korean peninsula.
During a separate meeting with Foreign Minister Wang Yi later on Wednesday, Ban thanked China for its contribution to supporting U.N. humanitarian efforts in North Korea.
On Syria, Ban and Wang discussed the recent G8 Summit in Northern Ireland, which concluded Tuesday with leaders of the world's leading industrialized countries calling for early peace talks to resolve the ongoing conflict, the press release said.
During his meetings with the Chinese leadership, Ban stressed the particular importance of China's participation in U.N. peacekeeping efforts, and thanked the country for its commitment to sending peacekeepers to the new U.N. mission in Mali known as MINUSMA. China is in the process of deploying a contingent to Mali that includes engineers, medics and security personnel.
As of May, some 1,645 Chinese nationals comprised police and U.N. military experts in missions. Thousands others have served in missions over the years, with 14 Chinese peacekeepers killed in the line of duty. Incidentally, China provides more peacekeepers to U.N. missions than all of the four other permanent members of the Security Council - France, Russia United Kingdom and the United States - combined.
Earlier on Wednesday, Ban visited China's Peacekeeping Military Training Center where he stressed the need to address new threats and operate in increasingly difficult environments through the ongoing support from the international community to the "blue helmets."
In a meeting with General Fang Fenghui, Chief of General Staff of the Chinese People's Liberation Army, Ban thanked the General for his consideration of training more peacekeepers from developing countries.
Wednesday's discussions also touched on human rights issues. The U.N. chief said he welcomed the progress reported to the U.N. Human Rights Council during China's last Universal Periodic Review. He said he hoped China's second review in October could give momentum to its engagement with the international human rights system.
The Geneva-based Council's Universal Periodic Review subjects each country's human rights record to a State-led peer review on the basis of information submitted by the country concerned, U.N. entities, civil society and other stakeholders.
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