Daily Times

UNITED NATIONS: Pakistan has called for bolstered cooperation between the United Nations and regional and sub-regional organisations for facilitating peaceful resolution of outstanding disputes and to respond to emerging threats to international peace and security.

“Closer political interaction among regional countries can also serve to address the security dimensions of these challenges,” Ambassador Maleeha Lodhi told the UN Security Council on Friday.

Speaking at a debate on cooperation between the UN and regional and sub-regional organisations in maintaining international peace and security, she said, “Our multi-polar world is more free and vibrant, yet more chaotic and turbulent.” Poverty remained widespread, xenophobia was on the rise, violations of human rights were rampant, situations of foreign occupation persisted, violent extremism and terrorism have assumed dangerous new forms and the global refugee crisis had acquired unprecedented proportions, she maintained.

“One of the tragic ironies of our age is that we are witnessing unprecedented human suffering at a time when spectacular advances in human progress are being made possible by the technological and scientific breakthroughs of our era,” Lodhi told the 15-member council.

“New and complex conflicts were emerging while older and unresolved disputes continued to fester, the Pakistani envoy said, adding that the international order established after the Second World War was falling apart, but a new order had yet to emerge. While the United Nations remained indispensable, Lodhi said it faced a huge task of dealing simultaneously with a variety of opportunities and challenges. It could, therefore, benefit from enhanced cooperation with regional and sub-regional intergovernmental organisations.”

While regional organisations play a positive role in addressing many diverse challenges, especially economic and social ones, she said, cooperation among members was an essential factor for the success of regional arrangements. “With relatively smaller memberships, regional arrangements usually yield speedier cooperation as evidenced in the African Union, the European Union, Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), Arab League, Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO).”

Noting that Pakistan had signed a memorandum of understanding with the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), paving the way for its full membership, she called for enhanced dialogue and cooperation between that entity and the United Nations since they shared the same purposes and principles.

She said the ‘One Belt, One Road’ initiative, launched by Chinese President Xi Jinping, was a significant example of ways in which cross-regional cooperation could be promoted.