Top Chinese legislator Wu Bangguo on Wednesday called for stronger multilateral cooperation in the spirit of mutual respect, mutual trust and common development.(Photo: Xinhua)

    UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 7 (Xinhuanet) -- Top Chinese legislator Wu Bangguo on Wednesday called for stronger multilateral cooperation in the spirit of mutual respect, mutual trust and common development.

    "To realize lasting peace and sustainable development in human society, members of the international community have to cooperate with one another fully and make concerted efforts," Wu said in a speech delivered at the Second World Conference of Speakers of Parliaments at the headquarters of the United Nations.

    Wu, chairman of the Standing Committee of the Chinese National People's Congress (NPC), is among parliament speakers from more than 150 countries and regional parliamentary organizations attending the three-day conference, which opened here Wednesday.

    "Mutual respect is a prerequisite for multilateral cooperation," Wu said. "We should respect the diversity in world civilizations and promote democracy in international relations on the basis of respecting and treating each other as equals."

    "Countries, big or small, strong or weak, rich or poor, are all equal members of the international community and thus all deserve respect in the world."

    "Big countries should respect small ones, strong countries should help weak ones, and rich countries should assist poor ones.There should be mutual respect of independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity," Wu said.

    He said that China opposes the bullying of the small, the weak and the poor by the big, the strong and the rich, and that people of all countries are entitled to independently choosing a social system and a path of development in accordance with their own national conditions.

    "No country has the right to interfere in the choice of the people of other countries," Wu said.

    The NPC head said mutual trust is the guarantee of multilateral cooperation.

    "In multilateral cooperation, we should safeguard and expand our common interest, properly address each other's concerns through consultations on an equal footing in the spirit of mutual accommodation, and have more dialogues to increase our mutual understanding and trust," he said.

    "To counter traditional and non-traditional threats to security, we need to foster a new security concept featuring mutual trust, mutual benefit, equality and coordination.

    "We should always settle disputes through dialogue and cooperation, and should not resort to the use or threat of force on the slightest provocation. We should get rid of Cold War thinking and broaden the converging points of our common interests, notwithstanding the differences in social systems and ideologies," Wu said.

    He said common development is the goal of multilateral cooperation, stressing that developed countries should pay attention to developing countries, fulfill pledges in debt relief and more assistance, and help the latter to enhance their capacity for self-development.

    "The international community needs to turn its ear more often to developing countries, defend their legitimate rights and interests, and push the world economy toward balanced and steady development and a win-win scenario to the benefit of all.

    "Developing countries, on the other hand, need to take acceleration of development and improvement of people's livelihood as their prime task, draw on the fruits of world civilizations in light of their own national conditions, and keep building their capacity for self-development," Wu said.

    Participants attending the three-day conference of parliament speakers, a follow-up on the first gathering of leading parliamentarians five years ago, are expected to deliberate on a report on parliamentary involvement in international affairs, a progress report on meeting the Millennium Development Goals, and a report on parliaments' contribution to democracy.

    Wu said the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), the world's biggest, longest-standing and most influential international organization of parliaments, needs to reinforce its substantive interaction and coordination with the UN and to establish between them an even closer working relationship.

    "China's National People's Congress is ready to join parliaments of other countries in making full use of this important stage of the IPU to carry out all forms of multilateral cooperation in a sustained endeavor to build a peaceful, prosperous and harmonious new world," Wu added. Enditem