Obama has also rallied businesses to help address the refugee crisis and met with business leaders just before the summit on Tuesday, who he said had made commitments worth more than $650 million to empower refugees.
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UNHCR also welcomed the announcement of the World Bank?s Global Concessional Financing Facility (GCFF) and of the generous US$50 million contribution of the United States to make it operational. “We see greater polarization, more frequent gridlock, movements on the far right, and sometimes the left, that insist on stopping the trade that binds our fates to other nations, calling for the building of walls to keep out immigrants”, he said a year ago.
Obama further cautioning against “the same forces of global integration” that have made democracies interdependent while exposing “deep fault lines in the existing worldwide order” like gaps between the rich and poor created by capitalism throughout the world. Such agreements, Obama said, could ensure that profits of the global economy are more evenly distributed.
Last year, Obama used his U.N. General Assembly address to declare that Syrian President Bashar Assad must step down, while Putin gave a speech cautioning the assembly against abandoning Assad. Still, he stuck to his insistence that diplomatic efforts and not military solutions are the key to resolving Syria’s war and other conflicts.
Obama said he believed the refugee crisis was a test of the world’s common humanity, adding that people simply could not avert their eyes from displaced families.
Now in its sixth year, the war in Syria has killed more than 300,000 people and forced millions from their homes.
On Monday, the United Nations said at least 18 trucks in a 31-vehicle convoy were destroyed as they came under attack while en route to deliver humanitarian aid to the hard-to-reach town of Urum al-Kubra. On Monday, the United Nations suspended all aid to Syria after the government carried out a deadly airstrike on aid trucks in Aleppo.
He also referred to current crises tearing the world apart, including Russian Federation attempting to recover lost glory through force by interfering in the affairs of its neighbours, and the South China Sea, where a peaceful resolution of disputes offered by law will mean far greater stability than the militarization of a few rocks and reefs.
The secretary-general expressed “great appreciation” to Obama for advancing United Nations causes “while upholding our shared values: freedom, equality, democracy and peace”.
And surely, Israelis and Palestinians will be better off if Palestinians reject incitement and recognize the legitimacy of Israel, but Israel recognizes that it can not permanently occupy and settle Palestinian land, he added.
In another veiled dig at Trump, Obama said “real problems” with globalization have been ignored, which has given rise to “aggressive nationalism” and “crude populism.often from the hard right”, reports CNN.
Obama, who will leave office in January, spoke of progress during his eight-year tenure, including reducing extreme poverty, resolving the Iranian nuclear issue, opening relations with Cuba, and agreeing to an worldwide deal on climate change.
In other moments, Obama seemed to be addressing the American electorate and the deep fissures that have been revealed by the presidential election.
Power said there were also pledges to increase the number of refugees in school by some 1 million globally.
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British Prime Minister Theresa May said that a global response was needed against terrorists who are exploiting banking networks, targeting airlines and using social media “to spread an ideology that is recruiting people to their cause all over the world”.
