Anwar Gargash: Current global order is being eroded and lacks consensus

Senior UAE diplomat was speaking at Delhi foreign policy event about challenges posed by changing security and economic situation

Dr Anwar Gargash, diplomatic adviser to President Sheikh Mohamed, speaks about challenges facing the global order at the Raisina Dialogue in Delhi- on Thursday. Photo: @AnwarGargash / X

The UAE has benefited from globalisation but is concerned about the cracks in the existing global order, Dr Anwar Gargash, diplomatic adviser to President Sheikh Mohamed, said on Thursday.

Dr Gargash was speaking at a panel discussion on 'A Tapestry of Truths: Can the Two Hemispheres Agree?' on the second day of the Raisina Dialogue in the Indian capital Delhi.

The Raisina Dialogue is India’s premier foreign policy event co-organised by the Foreign Ministry.

The panel discussion featured India's External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, former president of Bolivia Jorge Quiroga, Dutch Foreign Minister Hanke Bruins Slot and Tanzanian Foreign Minister January Makamba.

The focus of the talks was whether the global order had weakened and if reform was needed.

Sharing his views on the topic, Dr Gargash suggested the existing global system was outdated.

"We are already living the aches and pains of an international system that is not in sync with our current system," he said. "If you look at vetoes that have been implemented on the Gaza file, at the vetoes that have been implemented on the Ukraine crisis, there is a problem with consensus."

The veteran diplomat said he did not think the world will have "another San Francisco meeting", referring to the talks that led to the creation of the UN, so "we have to understand that, in reality, the system is being eroded while our ability to introduce something new is really diminished, so we have to really think about how to deal with that".

The UAE, as a smaller state, was concerned "that countries our size will fall between the cracks, between what is the current system or the older system created after World War Two and about the diminishing ability of that system to regulate security, to regulate the economy”, he said.

Dr Gargash said while the UAE had benefited from globalisation under the current system, it also had concerns.

“If you look at the awful security situation, and we can clearly see it in the Middle East, I think we are also very concerned about the ability of the system to regulate itself, regulate its security, and you can very clearly see what is happening in our region nowadays.”

There is a growing call from developing countries to rejig the established global order and include developing countries, such as economic powerhouses India and Brazil, to reflect the realities on the ground.