Justin Vaïsse on importance of China-France commitment to multilateralism for solving global issues

As longstanding partners in practicing multilateralism, China and France released a joint statement on preserving multilateralism and improving global governance in 2019. As an independent NGO founded under the auspices of President Macron, the Paris Peace Forum (PPF) is dedicated to practicing multilateralism. China has continuously provided support to and cooperated with the Forum to help solve global issues. Today, we are honored to speak with Justin Vaïsse, founder and director-general of the PPF, to share more on multilateralism.

Q1: Hi Dr. Vaïsse. Let’s start by discussing the concept “multilateralism”. Why do you think this concept is so important in today’s world?

Justin Vaïsse: We have more and more problems that are global in nature that don’t know borders. COVID doesn’t know borders, global warming doesn’t know borders, disappearance of biodiversity doesn’t know borders. If you take the global commons that we have, whether outer space where there are no borders or the oceans or the poles, the cyberspace, they know little or no borders at all. So the only way to have proper stewardship of these global commons and these global public goods is multilateralism, that is to say we need to coordinate to make sure that our satellites don’t collide in outer space, to make sure that someone is not taking advantage disproportionately of the remaining carbon assessment or of fishing stocks, or water, et cetera. All of these points to a very simple solution, which is coordination, and getting to an agreement among countries.

Q2: Thank you. Since China has been dedicated to practicing multilateralism, is there any important outcome from this commitment?

Justin Vaïsse: I think the Montreal-Kunming Agreement on Biodiversity, that’s really, very important. That’s one of the few successes of multilateralism in the past years. If you think of it, there have been very few large UN treaties, the Montreal-Kunming Agreement is one,both in terms of biodiversity and also having an impact on climate for various reasons.

Q3: We know that the Paris Peace Forum is dedicated to promoting multilateralism, and China has a high regard for the PPF and different Chinese officials have attended the Forum. Can you speak more about China’s involvement with the PPF?

Justin Vaïsse: There’s always been a strong Chinese presence at the Forum from the start in 2018. We have good engagement with Chinese participants, whether from the private sector or from the public sector. And that’s really important because the type of coordination that we are trying to do need the universality of participation. China could not conceivably be out of that if we want to have the impact that we want to have, that is, trying to help solve problems like the cluttering of the low earth orbit, or the excessive competition on critical minerals, or what we do after we reach 1.5°of warming. China is necessary for all of this, and we’re really happy that its role in the Paris Peace Forum is increasing year after year.

Q4: Thank you. Going forward, what do you think of China’s role in enhancing multilateralism?

Justin Vaïsse: Basically, if we want to survive as a species on this planet, there’s no way out of agreeing with one another, and that means multilateralism. We need more cooperation, more true multilateralism. And China, with its very large population and importance in international networks, especially trade networks, et cetera, is an important player in that and should play an important role.