Phnom Penh (FN), Oct. 26 – By and large, the COVID19 pandemic has posed the unprecedented challenges to humankind, triggering severe global crises in multiple aspects, ranging from public health to tourism and from trade to the disruption of global supply chains, as well as the exacerbation of different forms of socio-economic inequalities.

In the face of this global catastrophe, the cliché that everyone keeps repeating is that “no one is safe unless everyone is safe”. However, the responses to COVID19 have revealed that nations operate according to their narrow self-interest. On top of that, the pandemic is occurring at a troubling moment in world history. Multilateralism has been under assaults due to the rise of unilateralism, populism, and protectionism. The international order has been weakened as many of the norms, institutions, and practices that have sustained world peace and prosperity over the past seven decades are under enormous stress.

Read AVI Commentary “ASEAN-EU Partnership for Effective Multilateralism: A Cambodian Perspective” below.
=FRESH NEWS