World leaders began gathering on Monday at a time of extreme volatility, marking one of the most turbulent moments in the 80-year history of the United Nations.
The challenges they face are as dire as ever if not more so – unyielding wars in Gaza and Ukraine, escalating changes in the US approach to the world, hungry people everywhere and technologies that are advancing faster than the understanding of how to manage them, News.Az reports citing foreign media.
The United Nations, which emerged from the rubble of the Second World War on the premise that nations would work together to tackle political, social and financial issues, is in crisis itself.
As secretary-general Antonio Guterres said last week: “International co-operation is straining under pressures unseen in our lifetimes.”
Yet the annual high-level gathering at the UN General Assembly will bring presidents, prime ministers and monarchs from about 150 of the 193 UN member nations to UN headquarters in New York.
The secretary-general says it is an opportunity that cannot be missed, even in the most challenging of moments.
“We are gathering in turbulent, even uncharted, waters,” Mr Guterres said.
He pointed to, among other spectres, “our planet overheating, new technologies racing ahead without guardrails, inequalities widening by the hour”.
At the opening commemoration of this year’s 80th anniversary of the United Nations, General Assembly president Annaleena Baerbock said the world is at a crossroads as it was after the Second World War, and courage is needed “to show the world that we can be better together”.
“Today,” she said, “is not about celebrating.”
Mr Guterres said he will use the more than 150 one-on-one meetings he has with leaders and ministers to urge that they speak to each other, bridge divides, reduce risks and find solutions.