President Javier Milei branded the United Nations a “failing organisation” of “international bureaucrats” on Tuesday as he accused the multilateral body of betraying its founding principles.
In his first appearance at a UN General Assembly, the Argentine head of state stated that he was in New York to warn “what will happen if the United Nations continues with collectivist policies.”
Milei, 53, accused the UN of imposing “socialist” and “ideological policies” on its member states and turning its back on freedom.
"It has become a leviathan with multiple tentacles that seeks to decide not only what each nation state should do, but also how all the citizens of the world should live," said the President.
All this, said Milei, had led to “a loss of credibility for the United Nations.”
Slamming it as a “powerless organisation that is powerless to provide solutions to global conflicts,” the self-described “anarcho-capitalist” leader said Argentina would no longer support “any policy” at the UN that “restricts trade or freedom or the rights of individuals.”
Instead of "pursuing peace," today the UN seeks to "impose an ideological agenda on its members," complained Milei.
Railing against “collectivism, moral posturing and the woke agenda,” Argentina’s President urged his hosts to urgently change course and embrace the “path of freedom,” as his own nation did in last year’s presidential election that brought him to power.
‘Liberal-libertarian’
Milei, whose name was mispronounced by UN officials when announcing the speech, highlighted his status as a political outsider in the opening of his 10-minute speech.
“I am not a politician, I am an economist, a liberal-libertarian economist,” said the La Libertad Avanza leader, who said he had been “honoured with the office of president in the face of the resounding failure of more than a century of collectivist policies that destroyed our country.”
After highlighting the UN’s success in ensuring global peace since its establishment in 1945 (“Credit where credit is due,” Milei remarked), the Argentine leader then launched into a speech liberally laced with criticism of the multilateral body.
Noting that the relatively peaceful post-World War II period had also coincided with a period of unprecedented global economic growth, Milei accused the UN of “imposing an ideology on its members about an endless list of topics.”
The UN, he argued, had followed the path of many a “bureaucratic” organisation, “deciding how citizens should live their lives.”
“Where trade enters, we don’t have bullets,” argued the La Libertad Avanza leader. “Trade guarantees peace.”
Today, the United Nations served as an example of “a model of supranational government, of international bureaucrats,” continued Milei.
“An organisation that was born to defend the rights of man” is today responsible for “systematic crimes,” he complained.
“Rather than tackling conflicts,” said Milei, it “wastes time imposing rules on countries,” leading to a “loss of credibility” for the UN.
‘Supranational government’
Milei took particular aim at the UN’s 2030 agenda, which Argentina’s diplomatic corps have been criticising in recent days.
The agenda is focused on sustainable development goals, such as the eradication of extreme poverty by 2030, an intensified battle against hunger, promotion of gender equality and education.
“The 2030 agenda, although well-intentioned in its goals, is nothing but a supranational government that is socialist,” he said.
“The adoption of this agenda is fully in line with privileged interests and looks beyond the principles that were set out in the universal declaration of human rights,” argued Milei.
He also accused the United Nations of backing the Covid-19 lockdowns that began in 2020, describing them as a “crime against humanity.”
Milei went on to argue that his nation is showing the UN the “path of liberty and freedom.”
“Argentina is going through a profound process of change … we still have time to take another direction,” he urged.
His government would no longer “support any policy that restricts trade or freedom of the rights of individuals.”
“Argentina will abandon its position of historic neutrality and be at the vanguard of the fight for freedom,” he concluded.
Biden’s sombre farewell
Mile’s fiery remarks bore stark contrast to the sombre farewell address given by US President Joe Biden just hours earlier.
Referencing his own decision to drop out of the US presidential election, Biden warned of the dangers of autocrats around the globe refusing to quit.
"My fellow leaders, let us never forget, some things are more important than staying in power," Biden said to applause in his final speech to the UN General Assembly in New York.
The 81-year-old exhorted world leaders to stand up for democracy in the face of spiralling turmoil and conflict, urging support for Ukraine and pushing for peace in the Middle East.
But with six weeks until a vote that could bring isolationist former president Donald Trump back to the White House, Biden closed his speech by drawing lessons from his own life.
"This summer, I faced a decision whether to seek a second term as president. It was a difficult decision. Being president has been the honour of my life, there's so much more I want to get done," Biden said.
"As much as I love the job, I love my country more. I decided after 50 years of public service it's time for a new generation of leadership to take my nation forward," he added.
"It's your people that matter the most."
Problems ahead
Biden's speech, however, offered few details on how to solve the foreign policy issues that either Trump or US Vice-President Kamala Harris will have to deal with after the US election in November.
World leaders addressing the UN General Assembly repeatedly expressed alarm over the prospect of a wider war after Lebanon suffered its deadliest day in two decades after Israeli air strikes on Hezbollah strongholds.
After nearly a year of cross-border fire since the Gaza war erupted, Israeli bombardment on Monday killed 558 people in Lebanon, including 50 children, according to the country's health ministry.
The toll, the highest since Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah went to war in mid-2006, raised fears of an all-out conflict engulfing the Middle East.
In his speech, Biden warned against a "full-scale war" in Lebanon without saying how to avoid it.
His prized goal of a ceasefire in the Gaza war between Israel and Hamas meanwhile looks further off than ever.
On Ukraine, Biden was firmer, saying that Russian leader Vladimir "Putin's war has failed" in Ukraine and warning that Kyiv's allies "cannot grow weary" in their support for the embattled nation.
He is due to host Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy – who was in the hall at the UN to watch Biden's speech – at the White House for talks on Thursday.
– TIMES/NA/AFP
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