OPINION

Photo: Ambassador Anwarul K. Chowdhury, former Under-Secretary-General and High Representative of the United Nations. Credit: Mitsu (Eric) Kimura, SUA Archivist.

Critical Next Steps in Enhancing Women's Equality and Empowerment

By Ambassador Anwarul K. Chowdhury

“I am proud to be a feminist … all of us need to be. That is how we make our planet a better place to live for all,” writes Ambassador Anwarul K. Chowdhury, former Under-Secretary-General and High Representative of the United Nations. He is an internationally recognized initiator of the UNSCR 1325 as the President of the UN Security Council in March 2000. He is the Founder of the Global Movement for The Culture of Peace (GMCoP), a civil society entity promoting the UN Declaration and Programme Action on Culture of Peace.

: IDN-INPS UN Bureau; OPINION; 21 May 2017

Photo: Dr. Bradnee Chambers ©Aydin Bahramlouian

Harmonise Renewables with Migratory Species Conservation

By Bradnee Chambers

Dr. Bradnee Chambers is Executive Secretary of the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS) an environmental treaty under the aegis of UN Environment. Below are excerpts from his keynote address at the side event on 17 May in the margins of the UN Climate Change Conference in Bonn. – The Editor

BONN (IDN-INPS) – The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Paris Agreement on Climate Change are ground-breaking and highly synergistic agreements. Together they provide a vision and an agenda for shared prosperity and peace on a healthy planet.

: IDN-INPS UN Bureau; OPINION; 18 May 2017

Photo: Participants of the Belt and Road Forum. Credit: The Russian Presidential Press and Information Office.

China’s Mega-Project Seeks Linking Asia and Europe

By Somar Wijayadasa*

NEW YORK (IDN) - China hosted a high-level forum on international cooperation within the "One Belt, One Road" strategy on May 14-15.

The forum held in Beijing was attended by leaders of 29 countries, over 1,500 delegates from 130 nations, and representatives from over 70 international organizations including the heads of the United Nations, International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

Opening the forum, China’s President Xi Jinping highlighted that peace and cooperation, openness and mutual benefit must be the basis of the New Silk Road initiative.

: Somar Wijayadasa; OPINION; 18 May 2017

Get On With Disarmament, Don't Rant About North Korea

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power*

LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) - During the French election no candidate talked about France’s nuclear weapons. In Britain, the subject has been raised in its election in an attempt to undermine the Labour Party leader, Jeremy Corbyn. But the long-time anti-bomb activist compromised his views, saying in effect he was against them but Labour Party policy was for them.

Meanwhile, the Western nations worry and rage about North Korea’s nuclear weapons development. There is a lack of principle and honesty as well as an overdose of self-delusion as to their effectiveness as a deterrent in this whole bomb game.

: Jonathan Power; ARMAMENTS; Nuclear Weapons; 16 May 2017

Photo: Dr. Daisaku Ikeda. Credit: Seikyo Shimbun.

Strengthening the UN and its Creative Evolution into the Future

Interview with Soka Gakkai International (SGI) President Dr. Daisaku Ikeda

BERLIN | TOKYO (IDN-INPS) – Why is it important to highlight the role of young people in ushering in a New Era of Hope? Will the landmark UN Conference to negotiate “a legally binding instrument to prohibit nuclear weapons, leading towards their total elimination” succeed? How can UN Secretary-General António Guterres ensure sufficient support from the international community for implementing the SDGs and the Paris Climate Change Agreement?

Ramesh Jaura, Editor-in-Chief and International Correspondent of IDN, flagship agency of the International Press Syndicate group, asked SGI President Dr. Daisaku Ikeda these and related questions in an e-mail interview. Read the Q&A in full:

: Ramesh Jaura; OPINION; 15 May 2017

Photo: UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina J. Mohammed. Credit: Vienna Energy Forum.

Fighting Poverty and Climate Change are the Same Fight

By Amina J. Mohammed

Note: Amina J Mohammed is the United Nations Deputy Secretary-General. Following are excerpts from her remarks as prepared for delivery at the opening of the Vienna Energy Forum on May 11, 2017. The full text was distributed by the Vienna-based UN Information Service (UNIS). – The Editor.

VIENNA (IDN-INPS) – Together, the two ground-breaking agreements (the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Paris Agreement on Climate Change) are a transformative vision for a better world -- universal, inclusive and integrated, an agenda for shared prosperity, peace and partnership on a healthy planet.

But realizing that vision means we must address climate change as a matter of utmost urgency.

: IDN-INPS UN Bureau; UN INSIDER; 11 May 2017

Photo credit: Trans-Asian Railway. Credit: UNESCAP

Enriching the Belt and Broadening the Road

Viewpoint by LI Hong

LI Hong is Permanent Representative of China to the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) in Bangkok, Thailand.

BANGKOK (IDN) - The Silk Road, which is a route linking several major world civilizations 2000 years ago, is invigorated by the Initiative of the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road (BRI) proposed by Chinese president Xi Jinping in 2013.

The Initiative represents a long-term transcontinental vision for enhanced global economic cooperation and integration. It seeks to underpin future growth, prosperity and sustainable development by promoting policy dialogue and coordination, seamless connectivity, trade facilitation, industry development and people-to-people communication.

: IDN-INPS Asia Editor; OPINION; 11 May 2017

It's High Time Trump Made Friends with Russia

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power*

LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) - Does anyone, however well-informed, know what President Donald Trump thinks about President Vladimir Putin? I hazard a guess that he is still more pro than anti, only he doesn’t quite know where to begin.

It’s time overdue that they met and hammered out on the anvil what their mutual interests are.

Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama have left a legacy that makes it hard for Trump to manoeuvre. They have trampled not so much on Putin but on Russia’s core interests. When Putin’s predecessor, Boris Yeltsin, and later Putin himself were lobbying for what the last Soviet leader, Mikhael Gorbachev, had called a “common European house” they were taking heed of a Russian mood to drive through a new entente.

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 09 May 2017

Nuclear Risks in North East Asia Call For A Mutual Pullback

By Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs

This is the text of a statement issued on May 4 by Pugwash President Jayantha Dhanapala, Secretary General Paolo Cotta-Ramusino, Executive Committee Chair Steve Miller, Council Mark Suh and Executive Committee's Tatsujiro Suzuki. - The Editor

KANDY, Sri Lanka (IDN-INPS) - The mounting confrontation with North Korea is raising grave dangers. Both sides have made potentially escalatory moves. Indeed, the combination of harsh rhetoric and threatening military actions has produced a situation that has been characterized by some in the United States as a Cuban missile crisis in slow motion. As was true in 1962, there is an unusual sense that events can slip out of control, that disastrous outcomes could result from the dynamics now underway in Northeast Asia.

: IDN-INPS Asia Editor; ARMAMENTS; Nuclear Weapons; 04 May 2017

Ensuring EU Development Cooperation Is Sustainable

By Seamus Jeffreson

Following is a slightly abridged text of the presentation by Seamus Jeffreson, Director of Brussels-based CONCORD, at the high-level Conference – titled 'Sixty Years and Beyond: Contributing to Development Cooperation' – in Rome on 27 April 2017 to mark the 60th anniversary of the Treaties of Rome. CONCORD is the European Association of NGOs for relief and development, advocating sustainable development based on human rights, justice and gender equality.

ROME (IDN-INPS) - Before looking to the future, it is instructive to recall the origins of EU cooperation – enshrined unexpectedly and at the last minute in the Treaty of Rome.

Reading the memoires of Dieter Frisch – one of the doyens of EU cooperation over the years – it is striking how the concept of working together characterized the relationship between the African Caribbean and Pacific partners and the European Community from the beginning.