UN adopts pact to tackle volatile future for mankind

UNITED NATIONS: UN members adopted a blueprint for the future on Sunday to tackle the myriad wars, environmental threats and technological challenges facing humanity that the global organization hailed as “groundbreaking,” but critics panned as unambitious.

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who championed the “Pact for the Future,” hailed its “landmark agreements -- a step-change towards more effective, inclusive, networked multilateralism.”

As an opener for the annual high-level week of the UN General Assembly, which begins on Tuesday, dozens of heads of state and government gathered for the adoption, which faced last-minute opposition from Russia.

Leaders pledged to bolster the multilateral system to “keep pace with a changing world” and to “protect the needs and interests of current and future generations” facing “persistent crisis.”

The pact outlines 56 “actions,” including commitments to multilateralism, upholding the UN Charter and peacekeeping.

It also calls for reforms to international financial institutions and the UN Security Council, along with renewed efforts to combat climate change, promote disarmament, and guide the development of artificial intelligence.

The adoption of the text faced a brief delay when Russia´s deputy minister of foreign affairs, Sergey Vershinin, introduced an amendment emphasizing the “principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of states.”