Global Courant
LONDON
Global multilateralism has enabled humanity to tackle key challenges, but that doesn’t mean it’s perfect, the UK foreign minister said on Thursday.
“It’s clear what we need is a reformed and revitalized multilateralism system,” James Cleverly said at an event at Chatham House in London.
Elaborating on this, he noted that it needed to be “more inclusive and more responsive” to global challenges, including migration, security, development, climate change and future pandemics.
Pointing to the need to increase the effectiveness of the multilateral order, Cleverly said he repeatedly heard that “multilateral reform is now delayed”.
“The world’s economic center of gravity is shifting from the Euro-Atlantic to the Indo-Pacific,” he said.
“Africa’s share of the world’s population is projected to double from 18% to 37% by 2100, while Europe’s share has dropped from 10% to just 5%, increasing the already significant migration pressure.
All this means that in the coming decades, an increasingly large portion of world power will be in the hands of countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America.
He said the voices of the poorest and most vulnerable countries should be heard at the heart of the multilateral system, adding that Britain “supports permanent membership of the G-20 for the African Union for this reason and welcomes India’s leadership to take it forward”. “
Talking about his “five transnational priorities”, Cleverly said UN Security Council reform is at the top of the list.
“We would like to see permanent African representation and membership expand to India, Brazil, Germany and Japan.
“I know it’s a bold reform. But it will take the Security Council into the 2020s. And the UNSC has grown before if not since 1965.”
He wisely noted that reform of international financial institutions, sustainable public finances for low- and middle-income countries, trade and artificial intelligence and quantum computing are other priorities.
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