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 Brown, highlighting the need to forge a “new multilateralism”, particularly at a time when international cooperation is facing considerable resistance from various quarters.

The UN Special Envoy noted that the last G20 summit illustrated the deadlock in coordinating global economic policy despite the threat of low economic growth. “No new G20 finance for climate mitigation and adaptation, no advances in the regulation of artificial intelligence and to prevent a so-called splinternet, and little but warm words for the relief of debt and famine in Africa,” he said.