By Zhu Shanshan

United Nations Under-Secretary-General for peacekeeping operations Alain Le Roy said that it's important for the UN to have China as a strategic partner in world peacekeeping during his visit Friday to Beijing for a symposium on reforming the UN peacekeeping system.

In a press conference Friday afternoon, Le Roy used a Chinese term of building a “harmonious world” to describe China's contribution to the peace and harmony of the world while participating UN peacekeeping operations.

“We are so gratified to having China more and more increasing its participation in our operations,” he said at the press conference.

Currently having about 2,100 Chinese serving in UN peacekeeping operations, China is now the largest contributor of troops among the five permanent UN Security Council members, and 14th-largest contributor among all UN members, according to Le Roy. As a developing country, China is the seventh-largest financial contributor among all UN members to support the operations of the United Nations.

Since sending five military observers to the United Nations Truce Supervision Organization in 1990, China has sent more than 14,000 peacekeepers to support 18 UN peacekeeping operations in the last 20 years.

So far China hasn't joined any combat tasks in UN peacekeeping operations, only sending engineering, transport, logistic and medical personnel.