UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres lauded the General Assembly's achievements and lamented its failures.
"Geopolitical tensions are escalating. The threat of nuclear proliferation and confrontation has returned. Inequality is growing," he said.
In the past year, the United Nations has been on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic, Guterres noted. "Since the founding of the United Nations in 1945 on the ashes of the Second World War, the world has enjoyed the longest period in recorded history without a military confrontation between major powers. That in itself is a great achievement, of which the United Nations and its member states can be rightly proud," Xinhua cited him as saying.
"Transformative technology has opened up vast new opportunities, but also new threats - from cyberwarfare to rampant disinformation; from hate speech to political subversion and mass surveillance. And the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted serious gaps in global cooperation and solidarity," Guterres stressed.
