China will support the United Nations in helping developing countries and reforming global governance to give emerging economies a greater voice, President Xi Jinping told a UN official on Monday during the Boao Forum.

"As an active power in safeguarding world peace and promoting common development under the purpose and principles of the UN Charter, China will stick to multilateralism, facilitate talks and make unremitting efforts to properly handle relevant issues through dialogue and negotiations," Xi said when meeting Vuk Jeremic, president of the United Nations General Assembly.

The UN has a great responsibility to maintain peace around the world and still has much work to do to promote peaceful development and advocate win-win cooperation, he added.

Jeremic said the UN hopes to work closely with China to maintain peace and stability around the world, achieve the Millennium Development Goals and push forward sustainable development worldwide.

He said he will make more efforts to promote cultural communication between China and other regions in the world.

In his speech at the opening ceremony of the Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference, Jeremic said the world should cultivate the virtue of benevolence in international relations, advocated by Confucius.

The key to China's endurance can be found in the teachings of Confucius, who wrote of the ingrained virtue of ren, or benevolence, as a sincere consideration for fellow human beings and a sense of reverence and compassion based on the equal dignity of each member in a community of shared values, he said.

In an exclusive interview with China Daily, Jeremic praised China's benevolence in conducting international affairs under the teachings of Confucius.

"I come from Serbia, and we have a strong relationship with China. Our experience of China is that China best practices ren in international conduct," he said.

"China is much bigger than Serbia, but it treats us with dignity and respect. In the international arena, China treats us as an equal, which I think is a big element of soft power."

Jeremic urged all countries to implement the concept of ren.

In a growing interdependent world, which is increasingly democratic, "treating each other with dignity and respect, treating each other equally, is the cornerstone of a harmonious international society," he said.

Given that the global environment is facing one of the most profound periods of transformation to occur in peacetime, Jeremic expects China to play a bigger role around the world.

"I'm working very closely with China in the United Nations on basically all the relevant issues", from peace and security to sustainable development and climate change and basically all the fields of engagement of the UN, Jeremic said.

In about 1,000 days, the clock will run down on the Millennium Development Goals, he said, and the UN and countries worldwide need to use these 1,000 days to put together a new global development agenda for the post-2015 period. "China is going to play a big role on that," Jeremic said.

"I'm working with China, and I'm sure China will provide necessary leadership in this process."

"On one side, it (transformation of the global environment) is making it easier (to fulfill the Chinese dream) periods of transformation always provide a great opportunity for newcomers", Jeremic told China Daily. He added that China is, on one hand, a newcomer to the international scene, although it has one of the oldest civilizations.

"It also provides an opportunity for China to assume a stronger and more relevant position in the conduct of international relations, which I think is a place it deserves."

On the other hand, the transformation "provides a very combustible and unpredictable" world, in which conflicts are triggered and a course of events that have an adverse effect on the process of fulfilling China's rejuvenation dream are created, he said.

Yet China's ultimate interest is to have global peace, he added.

Xi also held talks with the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund Christine Lagarde and Co-Chairman of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Bill Gates.

Contact the writers at lixiaokun@chinadaily.com.cn and zhouwa@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 04/09/2013 page2)