China issues GSI strategy; Support was also sought from Nepal

China on Tuesday released the “Global Security Initiative” strategy.

It is said that China released the strategy with the goal of ending instability and promoting peace and development in the world.

In the strategy announced by Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang, it is mentioned that China is ready to cooperate with all countries, international and regional organizations in bilateral and multilateral security cooperation in the framework of global security initiatives.

A few months ago, China also asked Nepal to participate in the strategy. On December 29, in a meeting with Nepali Ambassador to China Bishnu Pukar Shrestha in Beijing, Director-General of the Department of Asian Affairs of the Foreign Ministry Liu Jinsong sought Nepal’s support to implement the Global Security Initiative (GSI). The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China in a statement had said that in order to advance Belt and Road cooperation(BRI) in Nepal, China is desiring to jointly promote the implementation of GDI and GSI .

However, Ambassador Shrestha had replied to the Chinese officials that Nepal will not participate in the GSI.

But, due to the negligence of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, on September 24, President Bidya Devi Bhandari addressed the Global Security Initiative (GSI) conference organized by the Chinese Communist Party (CPC). President Bhandari was criticized for addressing the conference as it was a security related program.

With the formation of the government led by the left-wing party in Nepal, China again took the initiative to engage Nepal in the GSI. However, diplomats have been saying that a country with a non-aligned foreign policy like Nepal should not participate in the GSI.

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What is the Global Security Initiative (GSI)?

The Global Security Initiative (GSI) was first announced by Xi Jinping, General Secretary of the CCP, in April 2022 during a keynote speech at the Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference.

The GSI’s ‘core six commitments’ were:
1) Maintaining common, comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable security;
2) Respecting the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all countries;
3) Respecting the purposes and principles of the UN charter;
4) Peacefully resolving differences and disputes between countries;
5) Maintaining security in traditional and non-traditional domains; and,
6) Upholding ‘indivisible security

Although China claims to have brought GSI for world peace and security, many countries and analysts say that this strategy is actually against the Indo-Pacific Strategy (IPS) promoted by the US and the Quad (US, Japan, Australia and India) group.

The same ‘core six commitments’ that Xi announced in April 2022, has now been made public with the ten-page long concept paper which has outlined six core principles.

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GSI’s six main principles: 

– Staying committed to the vision of common, comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable security.

– Respecting the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all countries, not interfering in internal affairs and respecting the development paths and social systems freely decided by the citizens of different countries.

– To remain committed to abide by the purposes and principles of the UN Charter, to resist and reject the cold war mentality unilateralism, bloc confrontation.

– To take the legitimate security concerns of all countries seriously, , respecting the principle of security integrity, building a balanced, effective and sustainable security framework.

– Resolving disagreements and disputes peacefully through dialogue and discussion, supporting all efforts to resolve crises peacefully, rejecting double standards and opposing the misuse of unilateral sanctions and the exercise of judicial jurisdiction.

– Maintaining security in both traditional and non-traditional domains and working together to address regional disputes and global challenges such as terrorism, climate change, cybersecurity and biosecurity.

These six principles are interlinked and mutually reinforcing, and are an organic whole of dialectical unity, says the paper.