SEOUL– Former world leaders, government officials and scholars called Friday for robust multilateralism in tackling climate change, COVID-19 and geopolitical instability, stressing, “No country, however powerful and resourceful, can tackle them alone.”
During the 16th Jeju Forum for Peace and Prosperity, participants cautioned against geopolitical tensions, lingering unilateralism and nationalism, as the world seeks to collectively chart a path from the drawn-out pandemic and reinvigorate the economy.
Under the main theme of “Sustainable Peace and Inclusive Prosperity,” the annual forum brought together prominent participants, including former U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, former Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva and former French President Francois Hollande.
“I firmly believe that we must elevate our sustained efforts to reinvigorate multilateral cooperation in order to holistically address the inherently global challenges of both today and tomorrow,” Ban said in his keynote speech at the forum’s opening ceremony.
“No country is an island in today’s increasingly interconnected world, one where trade, technology and tourism continue to bring us ever closer together,” he added.
Ban warned against “nationalist isolationism” when the world is grappling with viruses, cyberattacks, sea-level rises and other transnational issues, and called for solutions “underpinned by multilateral cooperation, sustainability, inclusion and global partnership.”
Touching on what he called the unfair allocation of COVID-19 vaccines, Vejjajiva stressed the need to reform and strengthen international organizations for enhanced global governance to address transnational challenges.
“We must have fair representation from all countries. We must have the power of these international organizations over choices of individual national governments when it comes to matters and problems that transform borders,” he said.
“Multilateralism and cooperation must be revived, and this is all the more essential because there are new issues which need to be addressed at the international and global levels,” he added.
Noting the escalating rivalry between the United States and China, Rudd stressed the need for the major powers to find room for their “strategic cooperation” in certain areas like what the U.S. and the Soviet Union did even at the height of the Cold War.
“(Cooperation) should certainly be possible now between the U.S. and China,” he said, stressing climate change, pandemics, a global economic recovery and nuclear arms control as “examples where cooperation will be necessary” for the interests of the two countries and the world.
In his opening remarks, Jeju Gov. Won Hee-ryong expressed concerns over the Sino-U.S. rivalry and voiced hope that the great-power competition will not lead to the closing of doors but to the opening of new opportunities.
“Thankfully, the U.S-China Summit is on the horizon. I look forward to the dialogue between the two leaders on international cooperation for sustainable peace and inclusive growth,” the governor said.
“We urge the two governments to make a smart choice, and I believe their choices are directly linked to the future of humanity.
Before the opening ceremony, participants discussed global climate cooperation in the pandemic era.
Ban stressed the urgency of the environmental crisis, noting that the ongoing pandemic has offered a glimpse into possible global disruptions that could arise from climate change, including public health perils, migration and protracted economic crises.
“We must immediately raise our ambition and urgency to take necessary steps to both mitigate and adapt to climate change and turn existing international commitments into decisive and transformational actions,” he said.
“I believe that the Paris Agreement offers our best hope to persevere over the serious threats to our planet. But we must urgently step up implementation efforts. We don’t have a Plan B because we don’t have a Planet B either,” he added.
Hollande urged the world to set their climate goals higher than what has been set under the Paris Agreement.
“If we don’t go further than that, and if we don’t ask the international community to do more, we will be insufficient. … So we have to set new ambitious goals.”
Source: Yonhap News Agency