Assembly begins with call to action

Nations urged to unite and rebuild 'global community'

UNITED NATIONS - Nuclear weapons, refugees fleeing violence, terrorism and reform were the universal concerns expressed by speakers cutting across borders as the 72nd General Debate of the UN General Assembly kicked off at the UN headquarters on Tuesday.

The weeklong annual session gives priority to development. This year's general debate is around the theme "Focusing on People".

About 90 heads of state, including a reigning monarch, more than 30 heads of government, four vice-presidents, three deputy prime ministers and scores of ministers are scheduled to speak before the assembly by Monday, UN officials said.

Listing rising insecurity, inequality and conflict, and the changing climate, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said: "Our world is in trouble. People are hurting and angry."

He said the sense of global community was disintegrating, with societies fragmented and political discourse polarizing.

"Trust within and among countries is being driven down by those who demonize and divide," he said in his annual report.

However, he added that trust could be restored if people worked together.

Guterres also called for a political solution to the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula, saying "we must not sleepwalk our way into war".

Officially kicking off the debate, this year's assembly president, Miroslav Lajcak of Slovakia, delivered the keynote opening speech, highlighting peace and prevention as "the only way to ensure that the United Nations is doing the job for which it was created".

Lajcak called the challenges of poverty, growing inequalities, terrorist attacks and the worsening effects of climate change global problems.

"Every country is coping with at least one. But they are also individual in nature, touching on the lives of each person," he said.

Continuing with his "America first" stance, US President Donald Trump asserted that "as president of the United States, I will always put America first," just as other leaders should always put their countries first.

He said countries must work in harmony without the US entering into agreements from which it received nothing in return.

He said: "It is in everyone's interest to seek a future where all nations can be sovereign, prosperous and secure."

In his 41-minute speech, Trump talked tough on the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, warning that the US "will have no choice than to totally destroy" the country unless Pyongyang refrains from its nuclear tests and missile launches. But he added that he hoped it would not be necessary.

French President Emmanuel Macron said the international community should acknowledge its collective failure and find methods to build a durable peace in Syria, now in its seventh year of war.

Recalling that France was a victim of terrorism, he said the world had to react against terrorism in Syria and Iraq. The use of the internet for such threats should be challenged.

On climate change, he said the planet was "taking its revenge for the folly of mankind".

The Paris climate agreement was "not up for renegotiation", he said, saying taking it apart would demolish the existing pact between states and between generations. While the agreement could be improved, the international community should not backtrack on it, he said.

However, Macron said he "fully respected" the US decision to leave the accord, and the door was open for Washington's return.

Xinhua - China Daily

(China Daily 09/21/2017 page11)