Pakistan highlights UN’s role for peaceful world
Amid rising unilateralism threatening multilateralism, Pakistan has underscored the role of the United Nations as the best vehicle for creating a peaceful world order.
“A rules-based order with the UN at its core remains an abiding and fundamental element of my country’s foreign policy,” Ambassador Maleeha Lodhi told the UN Security Council.
Speaking in a debate on the role of multilateralism, the Pakistani envoy said that UN Charter principles of sovereign equality of states, non-interference, and peaceful settlement of disputes are critical.
As true multilateralism means that decision-making bodies must be fully representative of the aspirations of all Member States – small, medium and large – Pakistan embraces Security Council reform for those purposes.
“There is no better vehicle than the United Nations to achieve the goals of advancing modern civilisation to a new and higher level, assure a life of dignity for all people, and create a just and peaceful world order,” Lodhi added.
The Pakistani envoy, praising the accomplishments fostered by the United Nations in the pursuit of internationally-shared goals for the common good, said that today multilateralism is under assault.
“Driven by forces of illiberalism and protectionism, jingoism is gaining ascendancy over reason, intolerance over acceptance and bigotry over humanity,” Lodhi stated.
Listing the complex challenges faced by the world, she said that consensus-building and compromise is being viewed by some not as virtues of strength, but as signs of weakness, with the pursuit of narrow national aims being promoted as the sole determinant of world affairs.
She added that long-standing legal norms are being eroded, UN resolutions and its binding decisions flouted with impunity, force being threatened all-toofrequently, and political brinkmanship and power-plays being threatened to turn strategic interests into clashing ambitions.
“These trends are not just regressive; they expose a rulesbased international order to new dangers,” Lodhi said.
Stressing the need for international co-operation, she said that during the last seven decades the UN has promoted the international community’s shared goals of peace, security and development.
“The 2030 Development Agenda, Paris Climate Agreement and the Sustaining Peace Agenda are recent affirmations of this collective approach for the common good and our shared destiny.”