UN General Assembly
2009

Today, speaking from this high rostrum, I would like to highlight five topics that are, in my view, important to all of us and our common approaches to the international agenda. The first is the timing of this meeting and the moment that humankind is currently experiencing. This session of the General Assembly is taking place at a very critical and complex time. It can be said without exaggeration that we are living through one of the watershed moments of modern history. Besides the economic crisis — the first large-scale crisis of the era of globalization — global development as a whole continues to be threatened by regional and local conflicts, terrorism, cross-border crime, food shortages and climate change. The impact of the crisis continues to be felt by most countries of the world. Although so far we have been able, it seems, to avoid the very worst scenarios, the question remains: how to overcome the huge imbalances and deficits — amounting to trillions of dollars — accumulated in the global and national economies.