Exclusive interview with the former chairman of the UN General Assembly: In a split world, everyone will be the loser – China Daily Network

Kleshi Jobau, Chairman of the 77th United Nations General Assembly and Director of Environmental Sustainable Development at the Hungarian Presidential Office, recently accepted an exclusive interview with China Daily China Observation Think Tank. He said that the focus of the global economy is shifting to non-Western economies, and strengthening international cooperation is crucial in the context of deepening global geopolitical fragmentation.

I have visited China a lot over the past few years and I am very happy every time I come here. Hungary and China have established diplomatic relations for 75 years, and we have gone through a long time together. A few years ago, the relationship between the two countries was upgraded to a strategic partnership. This means that the two countries have established close ties in the fields of finance, science and technology, education, culture, trade, industry and tourism, which are all at the core of development.

The most powerful driving force for the development of the world economy is turning to the East. This most active force decades ago was in the West, but now it has moved to the East. Therefore, every country, including small countries like Hungary, naturally hopes to establish fruitful cooperative relations with countries with economic prosperity, and China is one of the world’s major powers. In the global economy, the economic weight of the Far East is growing rapidly, including China, India, Indochina Peninsula and Indonesia. This means that if other countries want to develop healthily and ensure that technology, finance, industry, and even the wider economic field develops, it is necessary to establish beneficial ties and beneficial cooperation with these countries.

The automobile industry is a strategic key industry in the Hungarian economy, and more than 20% of the Hungarian economy is related to the automobile and transportation industries. The harm to the climate and environment of the transportation industry will be decreasing, which is a global trend in the future. Therefore, it is very important to understand the direction of the world’s development. The world is shifting from industries with heavy pollution to industries with light pollution, and from high-pollution industries to light pollution industries. It is obvious that electric cars, electric buses, and electric trucks will dominate in the future.

The future direction is unquestionable, but the focus of the debate is how to turn this future picture into reality with the lowest possible environmental impact. No method is perfect, and every investment has its advantages and disadvantages. Our mission is to work with investors and technicians to ensure that the next investment will generate less environmental pollution than before.

I was the co-chair of the United Nations General Assembly’s Open Working Group on Sustainable Development Goals. About 10 years ago, we set the Sustainable Development Goals. Now, more than 60% of the action time has passed, but the expected target has only been achieved by 17%, which is still far from the established target. We have to figure out why we are doing so slowly. Of course, the problem may lie in money, such as shortage of financing, and we may also lack some technology, or we already have it, but we are not using them efficiently.

One of the issues I am very concerned about is that the world is facing a deepening geopolitical fragmentation. In the past, countries have also worked together, and global institutions have created a global environment. But now, we see the deepening of geopolitical division between the world’s major centers of power. If we allow this trend to continue to develop, it first means that we will lose the world market and the world will be divided into regional markets. The world will also experience regional technological development and opposing economic and political camps. This is not conducive to human beings and is not conducive to achieving the transformation consensus we have reached.

If we impose geopolitical mentality on climate financing, biodiversity, oceans and water resources issues, the result will not be another “zero-sum” game, but a “negative sum” game, that is, everyone will be the loser.

As for the tariff issue, yes, the trade war is about to start again – between China and the EU, between China and the United States. I don’t like this. I really hope that in the near future, we can find a good way to coexist. We must find common ground between each other.