Photo/Illutration Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida addresses the U.N. General Assembly on Sept. 20 at U.N. headquarters in New York. (Sayuri Ide)

NEW YORK--Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is calling for the world to bolster the rules-based international order and reform the United Nations in the wake of Russia’s war against Ukraine.

“We must face the fact that the credibility of the United Nations is at stake,” he said.

He made the comments in his address to the U.N. General Assembly on the evening of Sept. 20 at U.N. headquarters in New York, marking the first time in three years the prime minister of Japan has attended the assembly in person.

“We stand at a historic, watershed moment,” Kishida said. “Russia’s aggression against Ukraine is an act that tramples on the vision and principles of the U.N. Charter.”

He said it is crucial to ensure the rules-based international order continues to function, and that the world “must reform the United Nations and strengthen its functions” to achieve that.

Russia is a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council, which has been criticized for its dysfunctional response to the country's invasion of Ukraine that began in February.

“What is truly needed now is not a discussion for the sake of discussion, but actions toward reform,” Kishida said. “The time has come to start text-based negotiations to reform the Security Council.”

He said that Japan would serve as a non-permanent member of the Security Council by “listening not only to the big voices, but also being attentive to the small voices,” and that it “intends to take action to strengthen the rule of law in the international community.”

In January next year, Japan will become a non-permanent member of the council for a two-year term.

Kishida, who hails from Hiroshima Prefecture, also stressed that Japan, the only country to have suffered atomic bombings, will continue to push for a world without nuclear weapons.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has implied that he would use those weapons if other countries intervened in the conflict.

“Threatening the use of nuclear weapons as Russia has done, let alone the actual use of nuclear weapons, is a serious threat to the peace and security of the international community and is absolutely unacceptable,” Kishida said. 

On North Korea, Kishida said that 2022 is the 20th year since the Japan-North Korea Pyongyang declaration was signed by then Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and then North Korean leader Kim Jong Il.

Kishida said Japan seeks to normalize its relationship with North Korea through “comprehensively resolving the outstanding issues of concern, such as the abductions (of Japanese people by North Korea), nuclear and missile issues, as well as settlement of the unfortunate past.”

He added that he is “determined to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un without any preconditions.”

Kishida also said the world's safety is being threatened by challenges such as global pandemics, food and energy insecurities and climate change.

He said Japan will revise its “Development Cooperation Charter,” which makes up Japan’s basic policies for assisting developing nations, to help create a world with better quality of life through food security and the development of international standards and norms in information and telecommunications.

Earlier on Sept. 20, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned the world faces grave challenges over food security and climate change, and that the world needs to band together to face such global problems.

“The United Nations Charter and the ideals it represents are in jeopardy,” he said. “We have a duty to act. And yet we are gridlocked in colossal global dysfunction.”

Related News