By J Nastranis NEW YORK (IDN) – In the run-up to Kazakhstan assuming the UN Security Council’s rotating presidency for January 2018, Kazakh Foreign Minister Kairat Abdrakhmanov has accentuated that the Central Asian country stands for the creation of a model of a regional zone of peace, security and cooperation in Central Asia and Afghanistan. […]
134-Nation Group Garners Support for SDG 9 at UNIDO Meeting
By Ramesh Jaura VIENNA (IDN) – “We are in a time when multilateralism is being challenged. Your participation in this General Conference reaffirms the relevance of UNIDO’s work to your governments and the people on the ground,” said Miroslav Lajčák, Slovakia’s Foreign Minister and President of the 72nd session of the UN General Assembly until […]
‘Together We Can Achieve the Most Daunting Tasks Ahead’
Reducing the Risk of Nuclear Miscalculation
By Daryl G. Kimball Daryl G. Kimball is Executive Director of the Arms Control Association. This article first appeared with the caption ‘Step Back From the Nuclear Brink’. WASHINGTON, D.C. (IDN-INPS) – Over the past year, cavalier and reckless statements from President Donald Trump about nuclear weapons and his threat to unleash “fire and fury” […]
UNGA Adopts Six Resolutions on Palestine, Middle East
By J Nastranis UNITED NATIONS (IDN) – Seventy years since the United Nations adopted the Partition Plan for Palestine as Resolution 181 (1947) on November 29, 1947 a hectic debate in the General Assembly has reaffirmed that peace in the Middle East is nowhere on the horizon. In fact, several delegates voiced concern that the […]
UNIDO Chief Has A ‘Dream’, Urgently Needs Funds
By Ramesh Jaura VIENNA (IDN) – Li Yong has a ‘dream’, the dream to give young people, living in similarly poor conditions as he experienced in China in his childhood, an opportunity to play a part in “the global fight against poverty”. Li was re-appointed head of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) on […]
From Arizona to Bangkok, Determined to Help Thailand
By Jutta Wolf BERLIN | BANGKOK (IDN) – There is something exceptional about Dr. Thanawan Bhookphan who was born in Min Buri, one of the 50 districts of Bangkok, the capital city of Bangkok, and spent over 30 years in the United States. He received Mechanical Engineering Degree from the University of Arizona, and Master’s […]
China and UNIDO Have Engaged in Substantial Cooperation
By WANG Shouwen WANG Shouwen is China’s Vice-Minister of Commerce. Following are extensive excerpts from his address at the 17th session of the UNIDO General Conference ‘Partnering for Impact: Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals’ in Vienna on November 27, 2017 – after Li Yong was re-appointed for a second term (2017-2021) as the Director General […]
Progress Toward Nuclear Weapons Abolition
Viewpoint by David Krieger* SANTA BARBARA | USA (IDN-INPS) – The Nuclear Age Peace Foundation has been working to end the nuclear weapons threat to humanity and all life for 35 years. We were one of many nuclear disarmament organizations created in the early 1980s, in our case in 1982. Some of these organizations have endured; […]
Mladic Verdict After 22 Years Cries for Shake-up of the UN Court
Viewpoint by Jonathan Power* LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) – Timing is everything. Dear Reader you’re right. If I was going to write on the conviction in a UN court of General Ratko Mladic I should have done it last week when the court sentenced him to life imprisonment for the mass murder of a significant part […]