Foreign minister Dr AK Abdul Momen on Sunday asked students to keep faith in the ability of the UN to shape a secure future for all.
He was speaking at the International Model United Nations Conference 2020 organised by the Bangladesh University of Professionals (BUP).
“We must keep faith in the ability of the UN to shape a secure future for us. During the last 75 years, the UN may not be able to deliver you upto the expectation. However, during past global crises, the United Nations delivered its mandates and stood firm to meditate conflicts, eradicate diseases, provide education, ensure security, improve living conditions and save lives by providing a whole raft of global public goods,” he said.
“It may not be able to take you to Haven but my dear friends, it kept you away from Hell and the Third World War and the nuclear disasters.”
“During the challenging time we are facing today, we believe that the UN would foster reinvigorated global action to ensure the future we want and leave even a brighter future for generations to come,” he said.
Traumatised by the horrors of the World Wars, the preeminent concerns of the UN's founding fathers were to save the succeeding generations from the scourge of wars.
Today, the specter of war still looms large, but it is a war of a different sort, a fight against an enemy that ravages silently and kills indiscriminately.
Suddenly, the pandemic has shaken all of us so strongly that the urgency for all countries to come and pull together has rarely been greater.
As the world wades through a complex crisis and endeavors to build back, we need more cooperation, and more partnership and not isolation amongst all stakeholders, Dr Momen said.
For the last one year, the world has been battling against an invisible enemy, the COVID-19. In a short span of time, the pandemic has disrupted and changed our lives beyond measure. It has posed a global challenge of unmatched proportions, Dr Momen said. Billions of people worldwide are in lockdown, unable to go to work, attend school, visit one another or meet in public places. Every one of us – from the Heads of State to ordinary citizens– is impacted and bears responsibility for the health and wellbeing of others.
Like the rest of the world, Bangladesh is left to fight the pandemic's shocks on multiple fronts- health, economy, exports, and human mobility.
“Fortunately, we have hitherto managed the crisis well compared to the rest of the world,” he said, highlighting the leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina during the pandemic.
