UN General Assembly
2018

Solidarity has been sacrificed on the altar of political expediency, illustrating the enduring prescience of the late Kofi Annan’s observation that when economic conditions are difficult, people tend to be less generous and protect themselves. The question of solidarity does not mean much to them at that time. We have retreated from the ethos of integration, cooperation and consensus-building that not only animated the pre-crisis decade but is absolutely necessary to solve the global problems that confront us. In a technologically connected, increasingly educated and rapidly shrinking global village, any belated attempt to put the genies of multilateralism and globalization back into their respective bottles is a dangerous folly. Walls cannot replace bridges, isolation cannot replace cooperation and clenched fists cannot shake hands. The United Nations is not without its many systemic flaws, and the ascendancy of its unprincipled antithesis demands that we address those flaws urgently. However, after seven decades, the United Nations remains the world’s only institution with the capacity and authority to enable global cooperation for our collective ennoblement.