00:00Let's talk now to Morgs Lukatov, the former President of the United Nations General Assembly and former Danish Finance and
00:08Foreign Minister.
00:09Mr. President, Minister, welcome. Wonderful to have your time.
00:13And I know you're probably watching these events as closely as we are.
00:17You've presided over the UN General Assembly.
00:20What are you watching most closely and do you believe that it achieves anything?
00:29The General Assembly is, of course, in a very difficult situation as the United Nations in general because there is
00:37not enough money to keep the whole thing going because of the cuts from Donald Trump and the whole role
00:46of the United Nations,
00:47especially the Secretary General, it's also a handicap because the presidents of the U.S. and Russia is not involving
00:56the United Nations in their military actions,
00:59in conflict with all the charter of the United Nations.
01:05And we have also in the Middle East Netanyahu's aggressive policies towards his neighbor as a clear violation of all
01:15what the United Nations have asked for, called for and tried to accomplish in that.
01:21So there is a crisis at the moment with these people in the center of the conflicted world.
01:30I guess the question that follows then is, do you think it can be reset?
01:35Can the United Nations regain its former prominence and influence?
01:42Well, there has been high and low water for the United Nations all along in the 80 years, also during
01:51the Cold War.
01:51I mean, the basic question is, will there come again after maybe Trump and Putin a kind of consensus between
02:01the major powers that their interest in peace and development and climate solutions are more important than their different conflicts
02:12of interest?
02:13We saw that when I was president of the United Nations, we saw United States and China work together to
02:22get us the most ambitious climate agreement in Paris in 2015.
02:26And that can happen again, but I'm afraid not with those people who are now in charge.
02:32We were talking about what takes place on the sidelines of UN gatherings.
02:37Mr. Trump, as you know, due to sign a new security agreement with Denmark and Greenland in New York, we
02:44understand, allowing a significantly expanded U.S. military presence in Greenland.
02:50Given your experience as a former Danish foreign minister, your thoughts on that agreement?
02:58Well, we don't know the text yet.
03:01I have not seen the text.
03:02But it seems to me that in spite of the very strong words Trump used when he announced this agreement,
03:12there is no real change in what could be possible between Denmark, Greenland and the United States even before.
03:18Because we have American military presence in the Pacific base in the Pacific base in the North.
03:26There have been much more American presence over the years, in the past 80 years.
03:30And they could ask for more presence if needed.
03:36So I don't think there's much change in reality because there's no need for a land military presence.
03:45What we need in Greenland together is to have a stronger surveillance, Navy presence, Air Force presence.
03:53And that could be done without all these calamities about taking over Greenland within the framework we have since 1951.
04:05Morgz Lukatov, I wish we had more time to speak, but the clock's beating us.
04:10Wonderful to talk to you.
04:11And thank you very much indeed for joining us.
04:14Morgz Lukatov, the former president of the United Nations General Assembly.
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