UN leaders stress need to catch up with new world of conflict

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The Ukraine conflict was one of the issues brought up in an open debate at the United Nations Security Council this week. It’s a much different global environment ever since 50 nations came together to form the United Nations more than 70 years ago. Now the international body is looking for better ways to adapt to the changing face of conflict in the world.
CCTV America’s Liling Tan filed this report from New York City.

Syria’s civil war, the conflict in the Ukraine and the threat of extremism spilling over from Syria and Iraq into North Africa and Europe. Seventy years after the United Nations was formed, it now deals with a very different world and U.N. member states agree, the organization needs to catch up.

“Collective security is the core purpose of the Organization. Unlike in 1945, however, we no longer have a full meeting of minds on what that means. We need to reflect on what has changed and fortify our sense of unity,” Ban Ki-moon, U.N. Secretary General said.

“In the world today, countries are more interdependent than ever and their interests are increasingly intertwined. Antiquated thinking, such as the cold-war mentality and zero-sum games, should have long been thrown out into the trash bin of history. China advocates a new thinking of win-win and all-win cooperation, as well as a new concept of community building for shared interests and common destiny,” Wang Yi, Chinese Foreign Minister said.

Three themes that emerged from this open debate were better prevention of conflicts, a more unified response to addressing disputes, and adjusting international action to deal with evolving threats.