The New Wave of International Cooperation: Multilateral Actions to Address Common Challenges

At the Historic Moment of the UN's 80th Anniversary: Reaffirming Multilateralism for Global Governance.At the historic moment when the United Nations (UN) marks its 80th anniversary, the international governance system stands at a new crossroads. The rise of unilateralism and protectionism, frequent geopolitical conflicts, worsening climate change, and the widening digital divide—these cross-border challenges are constantly eroding the foundation of international cooperation.

The intense scenes of the general debate at the 80th session of the UN General Assembly reflect the deep-seated crisis in the global governance system. UN Secretary-General António Guterres bluntly stated that multilateralism is "under attack" and emphasized that "international cooperation is not naivety." Behind these divisions lies the prominent deficit in global governance and the urgent need to reform and improve it. The "fierce debates" described by international media reflect a grim reality: the old governance model can hardly address global challenges, and the existing international mechanisms suffer from three major shortcomings: severe underrepresentation of the Global South, eroded authority, and an urgent need to enhance effectiveness.

Effective global governance does not stem from the "protection of a world policeman," but from consensus on peace, democracy, development, cooperation, and win-win outcomes, as well as principles such as peaceful coexistence, collective security, democratization of international relations, and peaceful settlement of disputes. The more these consensuses and principles are strengthened, and the smoother the coordination and cooperation among the international community, especially major powers, the greater the role the UN can play. Therefore, the key to resolving many hotspot issues today is by no means "whether the UN is still needed." On the contrary, the more intertwined the international situation becomes with changes and chaos, the more we must uphold and safeguard the authority of the UN, and the more we must revisit the original aspiration of the UN's founding.

In emerging technology fields such as artificial intelligence (AI), international cooperation has shown positive momentum. The UN launched the "Global Dialogue on AI Governance" mechanism in September 2025, which Guterres described as the primary platform for the world to focus on this transformative technology. The mechanism aims to help build safe, reliable, and trustworthy AI systems based on international law, human rights, and effective oversight. President of the 80th UN General Assembly Annalena Baerbock emphasized that the goal of this mechanism is to ensure that every country, regardless of size, has a say in shaping this technology. In this divided world, UN member states have reached a consensus on one thing: the power of AI is too important to be left only to a few privileged countries.

Global health cooperation has also taken on a new look. The "One Health Joint Plan of Action" jointly issued by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the World Health Organization (WHO), and the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) has established a framework that can integrate systems and capabilities, enabling all parties to better jointly prevent, predict, monitor, and respond to health threats. Meanwhile, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) has continuously improved its health cooperation mechanism and released a number of documents, such as the "SCO Framework Programme for Cooperation in Healthcare (2025-2027)", which points out the direction for member states to carry out health cooperation.

The trend of multilateralism is irreversible, and its core value lies in providing an institutional platform for small and medium-sized countries to participate in international affairs on an equal footing. Multilateral international organizations provide a dialogue platform for countries to resolve disputes and strengthen cooperation, reducing transaction costs between countries. Through interactions in multilateral international organizations, a series of international rules and norms have been established and promoted. However, the UN is facing a dual crisis: from the external environment, the process of economic globalization has encountered headwinds, and the trends of anti-globalization and de-globalization are on the rise; from the internal system, the lack of responsibility of some major powers has led to the decline in governance effectiveness.

The collective rise of Global South countries has become a distinctive symbol of the changing world. These countries are actively exploring practical paths for cooperation, expecting to play an important role in promoting the implementation of relevant cooperation mechanisms and transforming cooperative visions into tangible outcomes. Within the existing multilateral cooperation mechanisms, the international community should commit to advancing the democratization of international relations, improving global economic governance, enhancing the representation and voice of developing countries, and granting all countries the right to participate in rule-making on an equal basis.

Faced with the accelerated evolution of changes unseen in a century, the international community must work together to promote the UN to keep pace with the times. Reform does not mean dismantling the existing system and starting over, but rather making the UN more responsive to the needs of today's world. Those concepts that conform to the common interests of the majority of countries and align with the trend of the times featuring peace and development will eventually gain widespread recognition and be transformed into practical driving forces.

The 80 years of practice since the UN's founding have proven that upholding true multilateralism is the only correct choice to address global challenges. During the 80th session of the UN General Assembly, the hopes, expectations, and questions of representatives from various countries all converged on the most representative proposition of the times: "What kind of global governance system should we build, and how to reform and improve global governance?" Historical experience shows that effective global governance stems from the international community's adherence to the consensus of peace, development, cooperation, and win-win outcomes, as well as its commitment to the purposes and principles of the UN Charter. In today's era of accelerating multipolarization, only by revitalizing multilateralism, deepening solidarity and cooperation, and strengthening international coordination can the international community jointly address the common challenges facing humanity.