SIIS Successfully Holds International Symposium on Rebuilding Consensus: Multilateralism at Stake, International System in Transition, and China’s Solutions
2023/05/24
On May 24, 2023, Shanghai Institutes for International Studies successfully held the international symposium on Rebuilding Consensus: Multilateralism at Stake, International System in Transition, and China’s Solutions.
Dr. Li Xin, Executive Director of the SIIS Center for International Communications, chaired the meeting. Dr. Zhao Long, Deputy Director of the SIIS Institute for Global Governance Studies gave a very brief but concise introduction on the joint report written by SIIS and ACCWS on Rebuilding Consensus: Multilateralism at Stake, International System in Transition, and China’s Solutions.
Dr. Zhao pointed out that The world is weaving through a complex, intertwined and multidimensional challenges, experiencing profound changes unseen in a century.Against this background, the consensus of jointly defending the UN-centered international system and the international order underpinned by international law, so as to safeguard true multilateralism is facing unprecedented stress. With regard to global politics and governance, there exists a profound divide on what is multilateralism and how to best practice it. This divide dents the influence of multilateralism as an international norm. Although the major international actors have diverse perceptions of the connotation of multilateralism, they should uphold the multilateralism featured with inclusiveness and openness and oppose dividing the world by drawing ideological lines. Dr. Zhao stressed that it is of great importance to understand the conceptual differences between “alliance security” and “collective security”, “exclusive security” and “common security”, “confrontational security” and “cooperative security”, “overstretched security” and “comprehensive security” and what’s also essential is to understand the efficiency, role, and value logic behind these conceptual divergences. He finally had three suggestions based on the joint report: first, upholding openness and inclusiveness, including to strengthen dialogues, bridge divergences, unite to tackle global crises; second,rebuilding global security consensus by providing “reassurance”, abandoning any unilateral move to circumvent the UN collective security mechanism and providing reassurance to confidence-building measures;third,rebuilding global development consensus by adhering to resilience, equity, and inclusiveness as China’s Solution to Rebuilding Consensus.
Dr. Abdullah Al-Ali Mohammed, CEO of the TRENDS Research and Advisory Centre, Dr. Oh Ei Sun, Principal Adviser at Pacific Research Center of Malaysia, Mr. Bolat Nurgaliyev, President of the Foreign Policy Research Institute under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Dr. Kavi Chongkittavorn, Senior Fellow at Chulalongkorn University’s Institute of Security and International Studies and Dr. Mao Ruipeng, Deputy Director of the SIIS Center for American Studies were invited as speakers to share their insights and have warm discussions on multilateralism and how to make it workable and beneficial to all countries.
At last, SIIS President Chen Dongxiao delivered a closing remark. He affirmed the valuable discussion on how to build multilateralism and how to build confidence. Despite differences in characteristics among countries and regions, there is a general consensus that genuine multilateralism should be based on the Charter of the United Nations and international law. He appreciated the recognition that the building of genuine multilateralism should focus on the interests of developing countries, which is in line with China's practice of genuine multilateralism. In the process of building multilateralism, countries should exercise patience, respect each other, care about each other's interests and avoid double standards. President Chen proposed so called “CSC model” based on common sense, shared value and collective actions for common agenda as ideas and solutions for China to build true multilateralism.
Other SIIS participants: Dr. Zhang Pei, Deputy Director of the SIIS Department of Research Management, Dr. Zhou Shixin, Senior Fellow of the SIIS Center for Asia-Pacific Studies and Dr. Zhang Qiyue, Research Fellow of the Institute for Global Governance Studies.
