Mutual respect key

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the restoration of the lawful seat of the People's Republic of China in the UN.

At the start of his speech, Xi said this was "a historic event that will be solemnly commemorated by China".

He reiterated China's lasting pursuit of world peace and harmony, and highlighted the key elements of international relations such as mutual respect and justice.

"Recent developments in the global situation show once again that military intervention from the outside and so-called democratic transformation entail nothing but harm," Xi said.

He underscored the need to advance the common values of humanity of peace, development, equity, justice, democracy and freedom, and called for rejecting "the practice of forming small circles or zero-sum games".

Xi noted that differences and problems among countries need to be handled through dialogue and cooperation on the basis of equality and mutual respect.

"One country's success does not have to mean another country's failure, and the world is big enough to accommodate common development and progress of all countries," he said.

Muhammad Abdul Basit, a Pakistan-based political scientist focusing on international relations and sociopolitical issues, noted that COVID-19 and climate change remained the key issues at the UN General Assembly's gathering.

"President Xi Jinping focused on cooperation and supporting the UN in every possible way to uphold the banner of true multilateralism. Win-win cooperation is of benefit to the whole world rather than lose-lose confrontation," the Pakistani scholar said.

Jan Yumul in Hong Kong and Hou Liqiang in Beijing contributed to this story.