According to the special correspondent of VNA, on September 24 local time, at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, the United States, the opening ceremony of the High-level General Debate of the 79th Session of the UN General Assembly took place with the theme "Leaving no one behind: Acting in solidarity to promote peace, sustainable development, and human dignity for present and future generations".

The session was attended by 155 heads of state and government of UN member states, along with representatives of international and regional organizations. General Secretary and President To Lam attended the opening ceremony and delivered a speech at the General Discussion session.

In his opening remarks, UN Secretary-General António Guterres warned that geopolitical competition, endless conflicts, climate change, nuclear weapons and emerging weapons are like "gunpowder warehouses" waiting to explode, pushing the world into disaster. Mr. Guterres affirmed that the international community can overcome these challenges if it thoroughly addresses the root causes of global division, which are inequality, violations of international law and the UN Charter.

President of the 79th UN General Assembly Philemon Yang also emphasized that international cooperation is a tool to solve global problems and create a better future for all people in the world.

At the first general discussion session, General Secretary and President To Lam delivered a speech with a strong and comprehensive message on "Strengthening multilateralism, acting together to create a peaceful, stable, prosperous and sustainable future for all people".

Assessing that the world is undergoing epochal changes, the General Secretary and President said that peace, cooperation and development are facing new and more serious difficulties and challenges such as fierce strategic competition, increasing risks of tension, confrontation and direct collision, erosion of multilateral institutions and trust in global cooperation; non-traditional security challenges are pushing back human development efforts.

In that context, the General Secretary and President called on countries to strengthen solidarity, join hands, act together, cooperate closely, and promote the role of global institutions, especially the United Nations and regional organizations, including ASEAN, to achieve the highest goal of ending war, eliminating all forms of oppression and exploitation, creating peace, building a better world and bringing happiness to humanity.

Sharing Vietnam's vision for the future, the General Secretary and President emphasized that peace and stability are the foundation for building a prosperous future and that countries, especially major countries, need to comply with international law and the UN Charter, act responsibly, abide by commitments, contribute to common work, strengthen solidarity, sincerity, trust, promote dialogue, and eliminate confrontation.

The General Secretary and President said it is necessary to unblock, mobilize and effectively use all resources for development, giving priority to "lowland areas" in implementing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), supporting developing countries with preferential capital, transferring advanced technology, training high-quality human resources, facilitating investment and trade to reduce debt burden.

Calling for the early establishment of smart global governance frameworks, the General Secretary and President emphasized the need for a long-term vision on science and technology, especially emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, to promote progressive development while proactively preventing and repelling threats to peace, sustainable development and humanity.

The General Secretary and President said that there is a need for new thinking and efforts to promote transformation, focusing on digital transformation, green transformation and global governance transformation, thereby helping countries increase their resilience and self-reliance. Reforming multilateral mechanisms must ensure better representation, fairness, transparency, efficiency and readiness for the future. At the same time, it is necessary to put people at the center, in which special attention must be paid to investing in and comprehensively developing the young generation in both knowledge and culture, on the basis of common values ​​and a sense of responsibility and dedication.