Trump rejects ‘globalism’ in UN speech

U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday told scores of Heads of State and Government that his country rejects the ideology of globalism, both generally and in relation to international justice and the migration crisis.

Mr Trump, on the opening day of the Assembly’s annual General Debate, rejected globalism in his speech to the 73rd Session of the annual debate at the UN General Assembly.

Mr Trump said: “America is governed by Americans. We reject the ideology of globalism, and we embrace the doctrine of patriotism.

“Around the world, responsible nations must defend against threats to sovereignty not just from global governance, but also from other new forms of coercion and domination.”

He reiterated the U.S. commitment to making the UN more effective and accountable declaring: “I have said many times that the United Nations has unlimited potential”.

Mr Trump also re-echoed his past criticism of the world body, hitting out at the UN-backed International Criminal Court and the recently-proposed Global Compact on Migration.

He stressed that the U.S. will not pay more than 25 per cent of the UN peacekeeping budget, so as to encourage other countries to step up and share in the burden.

“And we are working to shift more of our funding from assessed contributions to voluntary so that we can target American resources to the programs with the best record of success.

“Only when each of us does our part and contributes our share can we realise the UN’s highest aspirations.”

He added that in spite of his warning to the Assembly in 2017 that “the UN Human Rights Council had become a grave embarrassment to this institution, shielding egregious human rights abusers while bashing America and its many friends”, “no action at all was taken”.

“So the United States took the only responsible course: We withdrew from the Human Rights Council, and we will not return until real reform is enacted.

“As far as America is concerned, the ICC has no jurisdiction, no legitimacy, and no authority.

“The ICC claims near-universal jurisdiction over the citizens of every country, violating all principles of justice, fairness, and due process.

“We will never surrender America’s sovereignty to an unelected, unaccountable global bureaucracy,” he declared.

Mr Trump added that the U.S. would not participate in the new Global Compact on Migration, scheduled to be adopted in Morocco in December 2018, stressing that “migration should not be governed by an international body unaccountable to our own citizens.”

(NAN)