US-China standoff overshadows UN General Assembly, as Guterres warns against “new cold war”

This appeared in The Millennial Source

Trump’s criticism of multilateralism was met with support for the same from his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping

The United Nations (UN) marked its 75th anniversary on Tuesday, September 22, with a “virtual general debate” of world leaders at the UN General Assembly (UNGA) — a first in the UN’s history, as concerns over escalating tensions between the United States and China took center stage.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres began proceedings by urging the world to prevent a Cold War and join efforts in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic.

He called the health crisis “our own 1945 moment,” referring to the Second World War, and described COVID-19 as “a toxic virus shaking the democratic underpinnings in many countries.”

“We must do everything to avoid a new Cold War,” Guterres said.

“We are moving in a very dangerous direction. Our world cannot afford a future where the two largest economies split the globe in a great fracture — each with its own trade and financial rules and internet and artificial intelligence capacities,” Guterres said, without directly mentioning the US or China.