Trudeau tells world leaders they 'have a responsibility' at UN Summit of the Future

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaks to the United Nations General Assembly during Summit of the Future, Sunday, Sept. 22, 2024 at U.N. headquarters. (Frank Franklin II/AP Photo)

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told delegates at the United Nations the world is at a global inflection point, having a choice between walking away from multilateralism or setting differences aside to confront serious global challenges.

“We have a responsibility,” Trudeau said, “to deliver on a pact for the future that builds a more peaceful world, but also one where everyone – every generation – has a real and fair shot.”

Trudeau was speaking at the UN’s first-ever Summit of the Future. The high-level event brings world leaders together to create a new international consensus on how to strengthen democracy, defend global security, improve access to health care, including reproductive health.

According to the UN’s website, the summit is also an opportunity to re-commit to the organization’s sustainable development goals. Those goals include eliminating poverty and hunger across the globe and ensuring good health and well being for all across the world.

Progress on the Pact of the Future could be stalled with Russia, Saudi Arabia and other countries objecting to language around climate change and reforming international financial institutions.

Evoking the formation of the UN nearly eight decades ago, Trudeau called on delegates to remember why the multilateral organization was first formed.

“We did so with the aspiration to build something better, for today’s generation, yes, but also for many generations to come,” he said.

The summit is a moment of reckoning for the UN, as countries move away from established partnerships and splits into different coalitions and blocks. The Summit of the Future was first announced by UN Secretary-General António Guterres in 2021. Two years later he called for urgent action noting the world was falling behind on meeting its sustainable development goals (SDG’s).

“The SDG’s need a global rescue plan,” Guterres told the High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development Goals last September. “Today, only 15 per cent of the targets are on track and many are going in reverse.”

The hope is the Summit of the Future will push countries to implement the existing commitments and agree to new challenges.

In his speech, Trudeau issued challenges to other countries while promoting policies his government have moved forward on. Citing the national child care program, school meal program and national dental care, Trudeau said they delivered on the promise of Canada for every generation.

“These choices reflect a commitment to investing in our people and in our future,” said Trudeau in his speech. “But also a commitment to tackle global problems we all share.”

While in New York, the prime minister will co-host a discussion with Haitian Prime Minister Garry Conille to help mobilize resources needed to addressed crises that country continues to deal with. A news release ahead of the trip says Canada will support solutions that are “Haitian-led and focus on the needs of the Haitian people.

Trudeau is also scheduled to host a high-level event with Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, to promote action on climate change, carbon pricing and industrial decarbonization.

Trudeau is also expected to make an appearance on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” Monday night. American drag queen and personality RuPaul Charles is scheduled to be on the same episode.

The prime minister’s U.S. late night TV debut comes as his government faces a non-confidence motion vote on Wednesday in Ottawa. Trudeau is expected to be back in parliament for that vote as his minority government no longer has the protection of the supply and confidence agreement with the NDP.