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| Former U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon delivers a special speech during the KOR-ASIA Forum 2019 at The Shilla Hotel Seoul in Jung-gu, Seoul, Friday. Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul |
By Yi Whan-woo
Former U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon warned of waning multilateralism, Friday, calling for its restoration to maintain world peace.
He said multilateralism was not easy to recover once it had collapsed and this explained a need for co-prosperity between Korea and 10-member ASEAN as it had been for the past 30 years.
Joining the KOR-ASIA Forum 2019 as a special speaker, Ban expressed concern over the growing U.S.-China row and other events that he referred to as symbolizing a "down cycle of multilateralism."
Among the issues were the Brexit crisis, U.S. pressure on security allies over economic interests, loosened ties among five officially recognized nuclear-weapons states ― the U.S., China, Russia, the U.K, and France― and Russia's Crimea annexation.
Two other special speakers at the forum ― former Thai Foreign Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva and ASEAN Secretary-General Lim Jock Hoi ― said they were as worried as Ban was.
"As a former U.N. chief who strived to implement the U.N.'s three principles of peace, development and human rights, I've always welcomed multilateralism because it brings peace," Ban said. "In that regard, I'm deeply concerned about multilateralism retreating and international politics being destabilized."
Ban said multilateralism was in an upward cycle until during the administration of President Barack Obama, but had been heading downward since.
"Multilateralism is not easy to restore once it has collapsed," Ban said. "And I am often worried whether this could lead to another world war and large-scale warfare as the Great Depression led to World War II."
However, Ban said the chance for military conflict between the U.S. and China was low.
"But their race for hegemony will apparently continue," he said, adding that this would be in the form of a collision of U.S. Indo-Pacific strategy and China's One Belt, One Road initiative.
Also a former Korean foreign minister, Ban said the Moon Jae-in administration should take such a collision into account in implementing Moon's signature New Southern Policy aimed at expanding ties with ASEAN.
"As part of efforts to restore the upward cycle of multilateralism, I hope Korea and ASEAN will continue to co-prosper as they did in the past 30 years. And I wish the KOR-ASIA Forum 2019 will be an occasion to discuss concrete measures," Ban said.
In a separate speech, former Thai Foreign Minister Vejjajiva said "unprecedented, unpredictable actions taken by key allies are pushing the world into uncertainty."
He said the interests of Korea and many ASEAN countries were intertwined with the U.S. and China.
ASEAN Secretary-General Lim said the New Southern Policy was an opportunity for ASEAN and Korea to deepen their multi-dimensional engagement and also "resonates well with the recently adopted ASEAN Outlook on the Indo Pacific."
To overcome various uncertainties confronting the world and to ensure peace and prosperity, Lim suggested deepening and broadening regional integration, pursuing greater regional trade and investment under multilateral trade bloc RCEP, enhancing people-to-people connectivity, deepening cooperation on the Fourth Industrial Revolution and building a people-centered community.
The special speeches were followed by a special talk moderated by ASEAN-Korea Centre Secretary-General Lee Hyuk.
Vejjajiva and Lim joined the talks, along with former ASEAN Secretary-General Le Luong Minh.
Among the topics discussed were how to sustain the popularity of K-pop and other Korean pop culture in ASEAN, how to bolster cooperation between Korea and five Mekong sub-region countries ― Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam ― to mark the inaugural Mekong-Republic of Korea (ROK) Summit in Busan on Nov. 27.
The forum was held in the lead-up to the summit and broader ASEAN-ROK Summit, also scheduled in Busan from Nov. 25-26.
