UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 23 (Xinhua) -- World leaders ended on late Wednesday their first day of the annual debate of the UN General Assembly in New York, putting global challenges in spotlight while stressing the importance of addressing them through multilateralism.
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UN General Assembly President Ali Abdelsalam Triki hosts the general debate at the UN headquarters in New York, Sept. 23, 2009. The 64th session of the UN General Assembly kicked off its general debate on Wednesday. (Xinhua/Shen Hong)
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In remarks opening the seven-day event, both UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and General Assembly President Ali Treki stressed that the world's most pressing challenges can only be solved when countries unite through the United Nations, the most legitimate forum for ensuring concerted global action.
"If ever there were a time to act in a spirit of renewed multilateralism -- a moment to create a United Nations of genuine collective action -- it is now," Ban stated.
Treki told world leaders "multilateralism is the way forward to address global, common-shared problems and it is also the only way to ensure effective and collective action."
Similar proclamations or endorsements were obvious in speeches delivered by many leaders throughout the day.
U.S. President Barack Obama, debuting in a UN general debate, said that the United States has re-engaged the United Nations by paying the dues and joining the Human Rights Council.
"This body was founded on the belief that the nations of the world could solve their problems together," Obama said.
Proclaiming a "new era of engagement with the world," Obama urged a "share of responsibility for a global response to global challenges."
THE CHALLENGES
In a marathon debate that lasted unintermittedly for 12 hours, nearly 30 heads of state or government took the podium at the General Assembly Hall to voice stance on wide-ranging issues from climate change to development, saying that only through international cooperation will the world stand a chance to resolve them.
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UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon addresses the general debate at the UN headquarters in New York, Sept. 23, 2009. The 64th session of the UN General Assembly kicked off its general debate on Wednesday. (Xinhua/Shen Hong)
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The reform of the global financial system is clearly one of the focal points of the day.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Wednesday called for the reform of key world financial institutions -- the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank -- and the reengineering of the international monetary system.
"The institutions' missions need to be redefined," he said. "It would be a mistake to limit their role to upholding an orthodoxy that has been so severely shaken by the crisis."
Chilean President Michelle Bachelet took a retrospective point of view.
"After the Asian crisis one decade ago, there was much talk about financial system reforms, better oversight mechanisms and early warning systems," she said. "But none of this happened."
Bachelet stressed that reform "cannot wait, either domestically, with better regulations in the capital market, or abroad."
She expressed the hope that the forthcoming G20 meeting in Pittsburg would make progress in this direction.
Some leaders devoted key parts of their speeches to nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation.
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President of the UN General Assembly Ali Abdelsalam Triki hosts the general debate at the gjzp001UN headquarters in New York, Sept. 23, 2009. The 64th session of the UN General Assembly kicked off its general debate on Wednesday. (Xinhua/Shen Hong)
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Russian President Dmitry A. Medvedev reiterated his country's willingness to work with the United States toward nuclear disarmament.
"Russia will steadily follow the path of verifiable and irreversible reductions in nuclear weapons as an essential element of 'the new start' in our relations with the United States," he said.
The Russian president also is at the UN headquarters in New York to attend Thursday's Security Council Summit on Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Nuclear Disarmament, first of its kind in the history of the 15-nation UN body.
Obama, whose country holds the rotating Council presidency for September, will chair the summit as the first American president to lead an open debate at the Security Council.
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Chinese President Hu Jintao addresses the 64th United Nations General Assembly at the UN headquarters in New York, Sept. 23, 2009. (Xinhua/Yao Dawei) |
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown proposed "a grand global bargain" between nuclear weapons and non-nuclear weapons states, saying such an effort would help prevent terrorists from acquiring nuclear weapons.
Meanwhile, following Tuesday's largest-ever summit on climate change at the UN, the climate issue continued to dominate the discussions in the general debate.
The British prime minister called on the world to reach an agreement on climate change in the forthcoming UN conference in Copenhagen, Denmark.
"Each of us has a duty of leadership to make it happen," he said. "And I have said I will go to Copenhagen to conclude the deal."
"This is too important an agreement - for the global economy, and for the future of every nation represented here - to leave to our official negotiators," Brown said.
"So I urge my fellow leaders to commit themselves to going to Copenhagen too," he said.
THE CRITICS
Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi, making his first visit to the UN in over 40 years, was among the leaders who shared a critical viewpoint.
In his one-and-a-half hour speech, Qaddafi unleashed a diatribe against the United Nations Security Council but took a shining to America's new president.
Calling the 15-nation Council, of which Libya is a member, a "terror council," Qaddafi alleged that powerful nations hid under the blue cloak to protect their interests and instigated terror against those more vulnerable.
Turning his attention to the United States, Qaddafi called Obama a "glimmer in the dark," but said he was afraid that after "our son" left office, relations between the two countries would sour.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad lambasted capitalism, Israel and the West, underlining "the need to make fundamental changes in the international politics for a better world tomorrow."
"The engine of unbridled capitalism with its unfair system of thought has reached the end of road and is unable to move," he said.
Ahmadinejad slammed Israel for launching 22-day barbaric attacks against Gaza. and said "the aggressors and their supporters deceitfully continue their rhetoric in defense of human rights in order to put others under pressure."
While the Iranian leaders spoke, U.S. diplomats walked out of the assembly hall as a gesture of protest. The seats of the Israeli delegation were also empty.
A total of more than 140 heads of state and government are expected to speak at the seven-day debate, held under an overarching theme, "Effective responses to global crises: strengthening multilateralism and dialogue among civilizations for international peace, security and development."
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