Remarks by H.E. Paulo Jorge Nascimento at the 10th Annual China and Globalization Forum
May 26 , 2024
–Remarks by H.E. Paulo Jorge Nascimento at the 10th Annual China and Globalization Forum
26th May, 2024, Being
Allow me from the outset to thank you, and the CCG staff, for organizing the China and Globalization Forum. It is an immense pleasure for me to be here.
As you pointed out in the presentation of this roundtable, “the sensation of crisis is not new”, the world is facing increasing challenges amid conflicts and wars ravaging Europe, the Middle East and Africa and geopolitical tensions are rising to levels not seen in the last decades.
And, despite the much that has been achieved since 1945 – as it was already pointed by other colleagues in this table – we are faced with “an erosion of trust in multilateral institutions”.
In face of such challenges, one might think about the possibility of a new global order versus the improvement of the current system. The alternative – on our view – should not be a rupture with the Multilateral System that has been built since the signature of the UN Charter (1945).
Multilateral institutions’ reform should have UN at its core, based in dialogue and respect for the universal principles and purposes that are enshrined in the UN Charter. The UN, and the whole UN agencies, alongside with other different multilateral agencies and institutions have proved along the years to be indispensable assets for the international community. We believe that the right path in facing current challenges is not a new and untested order that risks to result in nothing more than the dismantling of the international system without any viable alternative capable to sustain the more than ever interconnected world in which we live in.
On the other hand, by no means we believe that the international system and institutions should be frozen in the current situation. Reform of institutions is indeed needed to make them more able to respond to new circumstances that are arising and that were impossible to imagine or predict only a few years ago. Portugal has been present in international discussions concerning
Environmental issues, particularly Climate Change – and we do share specific concerns related to most vulnerable countries e.g. SIDS – the need to address and avoid the Digital Divide, to accomplish the Green Transition and to successfully tackle the challenges posed by advances in Artificial Intelligence (AI) or Biotech.
Alongside to these new challenges there are, however, issues that although might be seen, nowadays, less fashionable, they still remain important – not to say essential.
In a simple way, Human Security encompassing social, economic, and political concerns of all, not bypassing security (stricto sensu) issues, should be at the core of the concerns to which the international system shall respond.
