Barack Obama's UN speech: Help US help you | World News | News.com.au
BARACK Obama has sent a clear message to the world: it's time to stop whining about America.
In the US President's debut speech to the United Nations General Assembly in New York, he threw down a challenge to critics who have compained that his country throws its weight around and rams its agenda down the world's collective throat.
"Those who used to chastise America for acting alone in the world, cannot now stand by and wait for America to solve the world's problems alone," Mr Obama said.
"We have sought, in word and deed, a new era of engagement with the world. Now is the time for all of us to take our share of responsibility for a global response, to global challenges."
His message is being boiled down to this: President Obama's America is more respectful of world opinion than that of George W. Bush - and now he wants some payback.
He was speaking ahead of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, who in another speech elsewhere in New York has called for the US to lead an overhaul of how the world responds to major threats. Mr Rudd has said the G20 - which is Australia is a part of - would be well placed to take on more responsibility.
Earlier, Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi used his first address at the UN in his 40 years in power to deliver an abrasive attack on the body. He said the UN Security Council was actually the global "terror council".
Mr Obama spoke as several international crises reach a critical point, including the need to agree on a new agreement on fighting climate change at the end of this year.
There is also the effort to thwart Iran's nuclear program, with talks between world powers and Tehran due on October 1. And despite repairing transatlantic divides, it has also failed to win substantial promises of troops from NATO partners for the unpopular war in Afghanistan.
Experts have said the "jury is still out" on how effective Mr Obama will be in living up to its promise to engage multilaterally in a world of mounting diplomatic challenges.
Making his case, Mr Obama started his speech with a list of "deeds" he had made to back up his words, since coming to office - clearly playing on his own personal popularity abroad.
"I prohibited ... the use of torture ... I ordered the prison at Guantanamo Bay closed ... I have outlined a comprehensive agenda to seek the goal of a world without nuclear weapons ... I appointed an envoy for Middle East peace ...," he said.
He then issued a call to action from others: "Make no mistake: this cannot be solely America's endeavour".
In a nod to critics inside the US who have accused him of embarking on a global "apology tour" since taking office, he said he would never apologise for defending his nation's interests. "But it is my deeply held belief that in the year 2009 - more than at any point in human history - the interests of nations and peoples are shared."
UN chief Ban Ki-moon had a similar message in his speech to open the assembly. "Amid many crises - food, energy, recession and pandemic flu, hitting all at once - the world looks to us for answers," the Associated Press quoted him as saying.
"If ever there were a time to act in a spirit of renewed multilateralism, a moment to create a United Nations of genuine collective action, it is now."
Brazil's President "Lula" da Silva used his speech to acknowledge no country can go it alone these days, but that a dramatic reworking of the current system was needed. "I have no illusions that we might solve our problems alone within our own borders because the global economy is interdependant we are all obliged to intervene across national borders and must, therefore, re-found the world economic order."
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