The road to a new more equitable global financial order, in which low-income countries can compete on a level playing field, is facing two immediate speed bumps at the United Nations: one is Russian, the other American.
In the weeks since world leaders adopted the U.N. Pact for the Future — which proposes revamping the international financial system, among other things — foreign delegates have been expressing unease about potential Russian obstruction of the reforms, as well as the uncertainty surrounding the U.S. election, particularly the prospect of a return to power by Donald Trump.
“November 5 is actually a consequential debate for this discussion because it will impact the willingness, or the trajectory, of the engagement of the United States,” Bob Rae, Canada’s U.N. ambassador and this year’s president of the U.N. Economic and Social Council, told Devex in an interview. “We have made a lot of progress with the Biden administration in terms of their willingness to engage and really discuss the sorts of reforms that are possible.”