UN General Assembly
2014

numerous turning points and contrasts. On the bright side, increasingly the United Nations is playing better its central role in the promotion of the system of rules and norms of international law, thus facilitating solutions to global challenges, and of the interests of peace and development for all nations. Globalization and multilayered economic cooperation and linkages continue to evolve strongly. Our efforts to realize the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) have brought encouraging results in most regions. We see also a more sombre part, one that paints the many daunting challenges the world is facing. The trend of cooperation contains risks, while global economic recovery is yet to be sustainable. International peace and security are being challenged by the negative factor of competition and intervention and especially by the potential escalation of territorial and sovereignty disputes. Ongoing crises and conflicts in the Middle East and a number of African countries have inflicted major human and material losses and threaten regional and international peace and security. Global challenges remain high on the agenda of the international community. Terrorism, the proliferation