The President of the UN General Assembly, María Fernanda Espinosa, defended this Thursday (21.3.2019) multilateralism and, in particular, the United Nations system, against speeches that promote "extreme nationalism" and "isolationism", in clear allusion to the new US international policy or extreme nationalism such as that of Venezuela or the United Kingdom of Brexit.
«We live in an increasingly polarized world, we face multiple crises ranging from climate change to terrorism and I think that in the face of this it is essential to resume the multilateral agenda with a renewed commitment», said Espinosa. Speaking on Thursday to members of the Argentine Centre for International Relations (CARI), the diplomat said that "the United Nations constitutes the very centre of multilateralism and of a vision that responds to the hopes and aspirations of all peoples for a more prosperous and peaceful world."
Espinosa, who has been the president of the UN General Assembly since September 2018, warned that today is a “world of paradoxes” in which globalization has brought “significant progress” but, at the same time, there is a deepening of inequalities between countries and within them. “Millions of people have been left out of the benefits of globalization and feel insecure about their future,” he noted.
The diplomat said that the "promise of globalization has strengthened ties between countries, but it has also left a significant portion of the population outside of the benefits" of the same. "This disconnect between expectations and institutional and political responses creates a lack of trust in national and international systems," said the former foreign minister, who is visiting Buenos Aires to participate in the second High-Level Conference of the United Nations on South-South Cooperation (PABA+40), which will conclude this Friday in Buenos Aires.
According to Espinosa, this distrust and fear of the future "are reflected in the increase in voices calling for a return to unilateralism, which promote extreme nationalism and isolationism." He warned that this is a discourse that is "catching on and entering the consciousness and spirit of many sectors of society." "However, we know that no country, regardless of its size, economic resources or military power, can face on its own, for example, the devastating effects of climate change, terrorism or the global drug problem," he said.
Espinosa said that the United Nations multilateral system has not failed and that its mechanisms continue to be the "most suitable" to face global challenges, with "undeniable and extraordinary achievements." Despite this, he admitted that the Nations "generate skepticism" and said that the organization must make a "renewal of the narrative of multilateralism" to strengthen support for the UN, work for the most vulnerable and renew its operation and structures. He insisted that in the face of voices claiming that the multilateral system is useless and that unilateral and nationalist responses are better, "multilateralism must be firmly defended as the only way to resolve global challenges."
"This questioning of multilateralism, this lack of faith and disbelief, this resurgence of extreme nationalisms, are a great opportunity to say what we have done well, to think about what we have not done so well and to rethink and reinvent ourselves," he said.
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