UN 'powerless' in face of new global threats

President Komorowski gives speech to UN General Assembly, Thursday in New york: photo - PAP/Jacek Turczyk

On the second day of the annual debates at the UN in New York, President Komorowski said that if the rule of veto is not changed at the UN Security Council, which includes Russia as a permanent member, then "we are threatened by further plunging into powerlessness if such rules are not amended”.

Komorowski also called for the international community “with all its might” must condemn the recent “occupation of Crimea” and aggression in eastern Ukraine as a violation of international law.

The situation in Ukraine has created a new Cold War in the region, Komorowski said.

“This ideological background to the conflict is the return to the rhetoric from the first half of the previous century […] the logic of the law of the mightier and the ruthless imperial domination over weaker neighbours,” he added.

“What happened six months ago in Eastern Europe [in Crimea and eastern Ukraine] dealt a blow to that and threatened security on our continent. In our part of Europe, people are again asking themselves whether war as a method of obtaining a political goal will also be the European long-term reality,” he said.

President Komorowski is scheduled to return to Poland on Friday after a four-day visit to the United States. (pg)