00:00And that's day one. There has been discussions and the tension is quite there, but there has been a message
00:06of preserving these discussions, but also evolving institutions.
00:12We spoke to actually the Foreign Defense Minister of Ecuador, Mrs. Espanosa, and she told us that reforms within the
00:19United Nations need to happen and leave those cold era decisions that have been made. Let's have a listen.
00:25And I do believe that there are leaders around the world, people from public opinion, which a recent poll said
00:35that more than 70 percent of people in different countries and different regions of the world do want to see
00:42a stronger UN and they trust the UN.
00:44And of course, it needs to be revitalized, modernized, and this is true. And I think the first step, I
00:52would argue, is building trust.
00:55Trust in the organization, trust in the people working for the organization, trust from the public the organization is supposed
01:05to serve, and trust among member states.
01:08This is an organization that has pulled different forms of government. When the charter was signed 80 years ago, we
01:18didn't have such a vibrant civil society.
01:20We didn't have local governments. We didn't have the private sector. We didn't have a strong academia and knowledge generators
01:30providing to feed into the multilateral decision making of the UN.
01:35So this is a whole different reality today. We are not in a Cold War era anymore. We are in
01:43a multipolar world. We are in a world where middle powers have a tremendous traction, where the so-called global
01:51south, the global majority, has a strong voice.
01:55It is a completely different configuration. It is a completely different configuration. So the organization has to adapt to the
02:00new times. Trust, of course, but efficiency and impact.
02:05We don't need more resolutions and more paper, but we need more action. We need to listen more to the
02:12people that the organization serves.
02:14And we need greater ownership from member states to take the decisions they need to take. And for that, we
02:20need a leaner organization, perhaps, to focus on impact and to focus on results, more than bloated, sometimes, bureaucracies, quite
02:33frankly.
02:33So sometimes it takes a crisis to rebuild. And we are in a moment of rebuilding where the voices of
02:43countries in the global south are extremely important, where middle powers are important, and where the traditional powers are absolutely
02:52needed in this conversation.
02:54I want to ask about China. China has become a central actor in global governance and development. How do you
03:00assess its evolving role within the United Nations system?
03:04Well, China is not only supporting and talking about the importance of multilateralism, but investing in multilateralism. China has become
03:13one of the most important contributors to the system, not only to the regular budget of the UN, but to
03:19the peacekeeping operations as well.
03:21So it is not only, you know, the narrative about supporting multilateralism with China is very much engaged since the
03:31beginning, but also becoming one of the big contributors to the system.
03:36And they are a known China. I remember Minister Wang Yi's speech last year here at Munich. He was extremely
03:49bold about saying we need more and better multilateralism.
03:53And then came, for example, the global governance initiative from China, the global development initiative. These are initiatives, basically, that
04:09are designed to work together.
04:11They are designed to cooperate. China has become a great ally and broker of the developing countries and the developing
04:21world.
04:22And having been an ambassador in New York and Geneva and president of the General Assembly, I can tell you
04:28that China has become an indispensable ally when we think about renewing, strengthening the multilateral architecture, including, of course, the
04:38UN.
04:41So the headline so far is less illusion and more institutional institution building between countries and organizations, but also managing
04:52rivalries with dialogue and discussion and multilateral cooperation.
04:57So a lot to go and to think about through this big opening, actually, of the Munich Security Conference.
05:04And we have a lot more to hear today and also in the next days to come.
05:09Evangelo, thank you for that. Our correspondent, Evangelo Sipsas in Munich.
Comments