NEW YORK CITY: Bahrain supports calls for UN reform to “ensure that it reflects current geopolitical realities,” Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad Al-Khalifa said on Tuesday.
Addressing the UN General Assembly, he said reform should be “holistic” and “consensus-driven,” and encompass all bodies including the Security Council.
“The very systems designed to uphold the international order are under strain,” he added. “As the threats and challenges we collectively face evolve, this important institution, which our global community relies on to safeguard the international rules-based order, must evolve as well.”
The crown prince called for the UNGA to “recommit to peace” at a time when governments are pursuing policies “exclusively rooted in self-interest” and using “questionably legal force to resolve disputes” amid a rise in “radicalism, extremism, and rogue non-state actors sowing chaos and discord.”
Palestinians in Gaza are “living through an unprecedented humanitarian disaster, with over 40,000 killed, many of them women and children,” he said.
“It’s clear that what’s required is the implementation of an immediate ceasefire, the release of all hostages, and the adoption of an irrevocable path to the creation of a viable, independent Palestinian state.”
The Gaza and Ukraine conflicts, as well as rising tensions in the South China Sea, “undermine growth, stifle opportunity, and endanger the hopes we hold for our children,” he added. “Today’s world is, in many ways, more fragile than the one that had emerged from World War II.”
Current global challenges go beyond geopolitical ones, including the impact of unsustainable development on the environment and the effects of diseases such as COVID-19 in disrupting the global order, he said.
The crown prince advised against treating these crises individually, as they are “interconnected” and “represent a systemic threat to humanity.”
He suggested that in order to overcome these challenges, “like-minded countries come together,” which can only be achieved through system-wide reform that includes multilateral organizations such as the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the World Health Organization.
He stressed Bahrain’s commitment to pluralism and multilateralism, pointing to the country’s 2023 Comprehensive Security Integration and Prosperity Agreement with the US, which promotes cooperation in various areas such as science, technology, defense and security.
The crown prince said the agreement is not designed as a bilateral one but as “the beginning of a multilateral framework that aims to bring together countries with an equal interest in delivering stability and prosperity.”
He concluded: “The international rules-based order isn’t sustained by hopes or dreams — it’s the product of robust international institutions and security constructs that are fit for purpose.”
