Former UK PM Gordon Brown calls for new era of international cooperation, multilateralism
The world needs to enter a new era of international cooperation and renewed multilateralism, former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown told a large audience on 12 September, delivering the Presidential Lecture at the WTO Public Forum. WTO ambassadors, Swiss authorities, heads of intergovernmental organizations, representatives of non-governmental organizations, businesspeople and academia participated in the event, which was opened by Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala. The former British PM and United Nations Special Envoy for Global Education underlined that the family of multilateral institutions built in the 1940s “was conceived against the odds, born against the odds, grew and matured against the odds and succeeded for decades against the odds”. He said that in the same vein international cooperation needs to be reimagined today. I want to suggest now is the time for reconstruction, for a new era, even if it may seem at first sight we are striving against the odds,” said Mr Br