General Secretary and President To Lam: Historic opportunity to bring the world into a new era

On September 22, the Future Summit solemnly opened at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, USA with the participation of many high-ranking leaders of countries, international and regional organizations, and representatives of non-governmental organizations, scientists, finance and businesses.

General Secretary and President To Lam led a high-ranking Vietnamese delegation to attend the conference.

The conference is an initiative proposed by United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres in the Report “Our Common Agenda” (2021) to promote discussion and cooperation, build innovative solutions to address global challenges such as climate change, science and technology development, social justice and progress, and enhance the effectiveness of global governance.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres said the world is in a period of transformation and this Summit is an important moment to propose breakthrough measures to solve problems that are gradually beyond the current ability to solve such as conflicts, impacts of climate change, natural disasters, epidemics...

Meanwhile, President of the United Nations General Assembly Philemon Yang stressed that in the challenges lie many opportunities to improve, reform and further strengthen global cooperation for the common good of humanity and called on countries to unite for a prosperous future for all.

The Future Summit is considered a “once in a generation” opportunity for the international community to agree on a vision and ways to create a better future for future generations.

At the conference, delegates emphasized the need to promote strong and comprehensive reforms of multilateral institutions, enhance the role and voice of developing countries in global financial institutions, and contribute to mobilizing sufficient and more effective use of resources to accelerate progress in implementing sustainable development goals.

In the context of rapid development of science and technology, delegates called for early building of the foundation for a new global governance framework for emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence.

Speaking at the first plenary session of the conference, General Secretary and President To Lam said that human intelligence has helped change the world and human life, but humans are also the cause of many challenges such as climate change, epidemics, resource depletion or the production of weapons of mass destruction...

The General Secretary and President emphasized that present choices will shape the future, the world's sustainable development goals and human interests must be placed at the center and as the highest goal.

Accordingly, scientific and technological achievements must serve social progress, be oriented towards people, liberate people, develop people comprehensively, constantly improve life, ensure the interests and happiness of humanity and for future generations, focus on economic development, build a fair and civilized society, improve people's quality of life, eliminate hunger and reduce poverty, as well as promote cooperation, must not be turned into tools to fight against countries, go against the aspirations of peace, development, fairness and justice of peoples.

To do that in this turning point, the General Secretary and President called for strengthening solidarity, cooperation and mutual respect, and compliance with international law and the United Nations Charter. It is necessary to resolve disagreements and disputes by peaceful means; to promote investment and research in areas serving humanity such as medicine, education and training, digital transformation, green transformation and solutions to serve the masses.

The General Secretary and President said that countries, especially major countries, need to act responsibly, share common achievements in scientific and technological research for mutual development; support the central and leading role of the United Nations, together with regional organizations, including ASEAN, in promoting cooperation and responding to global challenges and taking advantage of opportunities from scientific and technological advances.

Humanity is facing a historic opportunity to bring the world into a new era, a new and better era of development, for progressive development, social justice, for a prosperous, free and happy life for the people when everyone has a unified perception, acts together, makes efforts and cooperates closely and effectively.

Vietnamese leaders affirmed their commitment that Vietnam will actively and effectively contribute to the common efforts to build a peaceful world with equal development for a prosperous and happy life for humanity.

On this occasion, the conference also unanimously adopted the Document for the Future, the Global Digital Document and the Declaration on Future Generations. These documents are comprehensive in content, setting out ambitious actions and goals in all areas of cooperation at the United Nations.

Some specific priorities in the documents include increasing investment, mobilizing resources to accelerate progress on the implementation of sustainable development goals, establishing a framework and fundamental principles to promote digital cooperation and innovation, transformation and strengthening of United Nations institutions and international financial institutions, to create a better future for today's and future generations.