The new president of the U.N. General Assembly warned Tuesday that unilateralism will only strengthen the COVID-19 pandemic and called for a new commitment to global cooperation, including on the fair and equitable distribution of vaccines. Turkish diplomat and politician Volkan Bozkir announced that the General Assembly will hold a high-level special session on the COVID-19 pandemic in early November, though diplomats said the date may slip. He told a press conference later it would have been better to hold the meeting at an earlier time in the pandemic, suggesting June. Bozkir took over the reins of the 193-member world body after taking the oath of office and being handed the large gavel signifying the office from outgoing General Assembly President Tijjani Muhammad-Bande, who presided over a unique year-old session that he said was “defined by a pandemic.” It included virtual meetings and new voting procedures. Bozkir told diplomats from U.N. member nations, seated at socially distanced spaces in the assembly chamber, that “confronting the effects of the coronavirus in all their dimensions will be an overarching priority for my presidency.” He said “no state can combat this pandemic alone” and it is the members´ responsibility “to strengthen people´s faith in multilateral cooperation and international institutions, with the U.N. at their center.” “Since the start of the crisis, the critics of multilateralism have been more vocal,” Bozkir said. “