The State of the World Based on Speeches From the 73rd UN General Assembly

Introduction

The 73rd UN Annual General Assembly was held from 18 to 27 September 2018. Heads of state, diplomats and political advisers from all over the world converged in New York which is the United Nations headquarters to discuss and debate on issues of global concern. Various boards, commissions, committees, councils, panelists and working groups were also present. Every year the representative from each of the member state -often the head of state- take turns to address the assembly in a general meeting that lasts for five days. The theme this year was to make the organization's impact felt throughout the world through global leadership and collaborative responsibilities with the aim of achieving peaceful, equitable and sustainable societies. This paper regards five speeches by different heads of state among them Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, Wang Yi of China, Foreign Minister Heiko Maas, Enrique Pena Nieto of Mexico and Theresa May of the UK on the state of the world.

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Conflicts and War

Foreign minister Heiko Maas of Germany in his speech affirmed that the world is clearly dealing with multilateralism which in turn makes conflicts seems irresolvable. Further, he insisted on the founders of the United Nations words "we the people" at the start of the charter spelled out that we need to work together to come up with solutions (Bundesregierung). He says that we can only preserve our sovereignty if we work together in a world faced with immense issues. Mr. Maas then went on to challenge the assembly to go back to keeping the promises that they made to serve the people by painfully quoting the wars between nations that have widespread into wars between regions, a conflict which he cautioned cannot be solved through military means since the stakes are too high (Bundesregierung). Further, in his speech, he preached a message of responsibility for the reconstruction of diplomatic efforts and against disruptive foreign policy approaches. He mentioned Syria, Korea and countries in The Middle East and the global refugee situation that is getting out of hand which drove home the values of working together in multilateralism for the common good of the people who the UN was established to serve (Bundesregierung).

Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli Prime Minister, also seemed to have a similar message for the assembly. He started by exposing the Iranian secret weapon facility in Tehran where they store massive amounts of equipment and nuclear weapons, a move which he expressed as shady and malicious (Haarretz). He then affirmed that despite Iran failing to abandon its destructive mission to build weapons his government would do everything in its power to combat Iran's aggression (Haarretz). He further applauded the US government for backing up Israel in its strife with Palestine by even moving its embassy to Jerusalem which is now the capital city.

Sustainable Development

Wang Yi of China spoke about the message of peaceful development by saying that every nation and region is entitled to a peaceful development plan according to its natural conditions (China-Embassy). All countries should adapt to the general modern way of globalization, and ensure that it moves towards a more freer, fair, beneficial, equal and win-win direction to truly deliver help to those who need it the most. Wang Yi expressed that implementation of the future strategic plans for sustainable development should be the priority for the 2018 session of the General Assembly by pursuing an international cooperation pattern with the UN as the flag bearer, with collaboration in the South supplementing the cause and the North-South links as the main strategy (China-Embassy). The leader asserted that strengthening cooperation and cohesiveness between developed and developing countries will continue to enhance the strategic priority for China's diplomacy and that the United Nations is the most appropriate platform to advocate and practice it role at the center of international relations and development.

Wang Yi joined his colleagues in advocating international order a multilateralism whereby principles of win-win cooperation that promotes a common development strategy instead of the best take it all mentality will steer the world at a future so bright (China-Embassy). Secondly, rules and orders must be upheld. The UN Charter, international governing laws and basic norms governing international relations and honoring agreements reached upon through common objectives and negotiations are some of the measures he proposed to ensure common direction.

President Enrique Pena Nieto in his speech seemed to agree with the Chinese leader by expressing that the world is going back to systems that hinder progress through policies that call for the unfair exclusion of nations, the imposing of trade policies and the erosion of multilateral agreements (Gob.mx). He says these policies promote exclusion of minorities politically, vulnerable groups socially, the dispossessed economically and those who think differently culturally (Gob.mx).

The best way to preserve independence and dignity is to support multilateralism and international cooperation.

The Mexican head of state challenged the assembly to abolish discrimination, urging them to end the exclusion of the minorities, the less favored and those that dare to think differently politically, economically and culturally respectively (Gob.mx). He remained committed to promoting protecting human rights and even called for scrutiny as a means of strengthening legal frameworks and principles of democracy throughout the world part of human rights measures (Gob.mx). He came out to strongly condemn development of weapons of mass destruction citing it as the greatest challenge to internal security.

Prime Minister Theresa May in her speech voiced strong support for the rules-based global system on open societies and cooperation. She spoke about the need for practical actions and efforts to meet the needs of those who feel discriminated by the current global economic system (Gov.uk). The UK leader identified that the global system needs to work for all and this would be realized through investing in the United Nations. She also talked about the risks of technological change as a contributing factor to inequality and division rather than being used as a great opportunity for the world (Gov.uk). The rate of globalization also has left behind the majority of people who have to access these skills behind. She emphasized on the need to ensure that all partners in the industries operate by the book so that innovation is known and appreciated for creating jobs and not demonized because of grievances over tax not paid or human rights not being respected (Gov.uk). In the increasingly global economy, fair rules governing trade, tax and information sharing needs to be set and enforced.

Conclusion

From the speeches delivered by different world leaders at the 73rd general assembly, the message is clear. It is time to come together and work at promoting equality of the genders, planning for and implementing new international measures to help those in need; highlighting innovative thinking around the future of work, protecting the environment, implementing the reform of the UN system and promoting peace.

Works Cited

Bundesregierung. "Heiko Mass Speaks at the UN General Assembly." https://www.bundesregierung.de/breg-en/issues/heiko-maas-speaks-at-the-un-general-assembly-1533066. Accessed 12 Oct 2018

China-Embassy. "Wang Yi Attends the General Assembly of the 73rd Session of the United Nations (UN) General Assembly and Delivers a Speech." http://www.china-embassy.org/eng/zgyw/t1601122.htm. Accessed 12 Oct 2018.

Gob.mx. "73rd United Nations General Assembly: President Enrique Concludes Activities at the UN." https://www.gob.mx/presidencia/articulos/73rd-united-nations-general-assembly. Accessed 12 Oct 2018.

Gov.uk. "PM Speech to the UN General Assembly: 26 September 2018." https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/pm-speech-to-the-un-general-assembly-26-september-2018. Accessed 12 Oct 2018.

Haarretz. "Full Text: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's 2018 UN General Assembly Speech." https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/full-text-benjamin-netanyahu-s-2018-un-general-assembly-speech-1.6513185. Accessed 12 Oct 2018.