UN unable to 'display leadership' to meet current global challenges: Turkish foreign minister

WASHINGTON

The UN has proven unable to show the leadership to meet current global challenges, said Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan on Monday.

"Both the international community and the United Nations are facing a historic test. Our ability to produce solutions to crises and conflicts is declining while the injustices in the income distribution are deepening," Fidan told the UN Summit of the Future in New York.

"Unfortunately, the United Nations cannot display the leadership that it should, in the face of ever-growing threats against humanity," he added.

The high-level conference is bringing world leaders together to forge a new international consensus on how to better present and safeguard the future.

Fidan said an effective new structure is needed, one that will produce common solutions to global problems.

"We need a more just, inclusive and effective multilateral model. Comprehensive reform is needed in the United Nations, especially in the Security Council. In fact, the world is bigger than five," he added.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has long pushed for reforms to the UN, often using the slogan “The world is bigger than five,” referring to the Security Council’s unrepresentative membership.

Erdogan has also decried the UN’s lack of effectiveness in responding to various international crises, especially the nearly year-old Israeli war on Gaza, which has killed over 41,000 people, mostly women and children, and injured over 95,000 others.

'Privileged clique'

"The resolutions that are adopted with an overwhelming majority at the General Assembly cannot be implemented because of the Security Council," said the foreign minister.

"International peace and security cannot be left to the will of a privileged clique consisting of a limited number of countries," he said.

Stressing that efficient tools and mechanisms to promote dialogue in the face of increasing polarization are needed, Fidan said the reform of the international financial architecture is also "a must."

"This is the only way to achieve the sustainable development goals. To pursue these objectives, we will continue to work and voice our views on every platform," he added.

Turning to the new technologies, especially digitalization and artificial intelligence, the minister said Türkiye welcomes the adoption of the Global Digital Compact, which is one of the fundamental components of the Pact for the Future.

"We expect the international community to increase its support to the United Nations Technology Bank, hosted by Türkiye, in its critical task of closing the digital gap between developed countries and the Least Developed Countries," he added.