UN General Assembly
2024

Old truths give way to new ones. The trick now, as it was then, is to have one’s eyes wide open about the fundamental shifts that are taking place and be nimble enough to adapt to them. The need to adapt to changing historical contexts is also incumbent on the United Nations and its organisations. The rise of mini-lateral agreements is one sign of countries increasingly working together outside of the United Nations. Another is the sclerosis around necessary veto reform. In the 10 months since returning for a third time as New Zealand’s Foreign Minister, we have spoken widely with colleagues across the globe. Summing up those discussions in a recent speech in Tokyo, we said that never has it been more apparent just how much diplomacy and the tools of statecraft matter in our troubled world. And since war and instability is everyone’s calamity, diplomacy is the business of us all. We observed that at this moment in time the ability to talk with, rather than at, each other has never been more needed.