5.2 Areas Involved in China-EU Cooperation in the UN
Security Council and China-EU Performance
Some cooperation between and among members of the UN Security Council is a
prerequisite for ensuring that the UN Security Council functions and plays its role
properly. Such cooperation is conducted in various forms, such as: (1) carrying out
consultations and negotiations, according to the UN Security Council framework,
on international peace and security issues, participating in addressing major inter-
national issues; (2) participating in decision-making at the UN Security Council on
international peace and security issues (including judgment and identification of
relevant circumstances, adoption of necessary measures, etc.)(the EU participates in
such decision-making through its member states); (3) participating in operations for
safeguarding international peace and security as organized and approved by the UN
Security Council; (4) exercising other powers and functions at the UN Security
Council, for example, drawing up arms control plans, electing judges to the
International Court of Justice, recommending the Secretary General of the UN
Security Council, admitting or dismissing members of the UN, etc. Though various
disputes and issues have occurred since the establishment of the UN, on the whole,
the UN Security Council has played an important role in safeguarding international
peace and security, which shows that effective cooperation to a certain degree has
been achieved between and among members of the UN Security Council and
members of the UN.
There are no special mechanisms and arrangements between China and the EU
with respect to cooperation in the UN Security Council; however, both sides have
entered into a good relationship of cooperation in this aspect. On the one hand, the
two sides always maintain multiform, multi-channel exchanges and consultations on
major international issues, and jointly support and are committed to various activities
approved by the UN Security Council. On the other hand, like the majority of the
members of the UN Security Council, the two sides agree on most of the matters
involved in resolutions adopted by the UN. For example, the UN Security Council
adopted 66 resolutions (including 3 non-unanimous resolutions, only 2 solutions
were vetoed) and 53 resolutions (including 3 non-unanimous resolutions, only 2
solutions were vetoed) in 2011 and 2012 respectively. This demonstrates that there
were cooperation and consensuses between the two sides on international peace and
security affairs in most circumstances. Of course, disagreements took place between
them; for example, both China and Russia vetoed the resolution concerning the
Syrian issue proposed by France, Germany, Portugal, the UK, etc. on October 4,
2011; both China and Russia once again vetoed the resolutions concerning the
Syrian issue proposed by the UK, France, Germany, etc. on February 4 and July 19,
- However, there were only very few cases in which China vetoed UN Security
Council resolutions proposed or supported by European countries compared with the
cases in which resolutions were adopted by the UN Security Council. Furthermore,
the existence of disagreements over some issues is a normal phenomenon in the
international community, and disagreements may also occur between the EU and the
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