泰德·安东尼 纽约——这里有厄运，有阴霾，有猜忌。各方坚持共享权力、防止政治和军事霸凌。而且呼声日益高涨，要求在权力的桌旁拥有常设席位——为受气候变化威胁的岛国，以及更重要的，为非洲。
TED ANTHONY NEW YORK — There is doom. There is gloom. There is mistrust. There is insistence upon shared power and the prevention of political and military bullying. And there is a growing cry for permanent seats at the table of power — for island nations threatened by climate change and, more than anything, for Africa.
近年来，世界领导人在联大年度会议上互相发表演说时，这些情况屡见不鲜，本周一会议刚刚闭幕。不过，今年的论调似乎比以往更加紧迫。在150多位领导人的发言中，两点显现出来：许多领导人深切希望这个世界机构发挥作用；但也有许多人得出结论，认为它并未奏效。
These things have often been true in recent years when world leaders orate at one another during their annual meeting at the U.N. General Assembly , which concluded Monday. This year, though, the discourse seemed even more urgent than usual. Across the words of more than 150 speeches, two things emerged as clear: Many leaders deeply want the world body to work. And many have concluded that it isn’t.
“联合国在哪里？”萨尔瓦多外长亚历山德拉·希尔·蒂诺科周一发问：“我们拥有的组织还具备相关性吗？”这个问题笼罩了为期一周的会议，一位接一位世界领导人——用不同的措辞、不同的细节——探究这个八十年前为防止二战悲剧重演而成立的组织的核心。
“Where are the United Nations?”Alexandra Hill Tinoco, the foreign minister of El Salvador, asked Monday. “Do we have an organization that is still relevant?”That was the question that hung over the weeklong gathering as leader after world leader — in different words, with different details — probed at the very heart of the organization that was founded eight decades ago to prevent a conflict like World War II from ever happening again.
联合国精神的核心是一个普通人很少用的词：“多边主义”。这一乐观原则——即跨越国界、地区和海洋的问题可以通过合作与共享权力来解决——极具感召力，几乎人人拥护（唐纳德·特朗普执政下的美国是个显著例外）。
At the heart of the U.N. ethos sits a word that most regular people never use: “multilateralism.”The optimistic principle — that problems that cross borders, regions and oceans can be solved by cooperation and shared power — is a potent one, advocated by almost everyone (the United States under Donald Trump being a notable exception).
但这种多边主义是在另一个时代构想并建立的，当时大流行、气候变化和人工智能等全球性挑战尚未如此凸显。即使在今天，掌握真正权力——即无需给出理由就能否决提交安理会的任何议案的能力——的依然是二战结束时获得该权力的那五个国家。
But that flavor of multilateralism was conceived and built in a different era, when globalized challenges like pandemics, climate change and artificial intelligence did not sit quite so front and center. Even today, those that hold the true power — the ability to veto anything that comes before the U.N. Security Council without giving a reason — are the same five nations given it at the end of World War II.
“多边主义正遭受围攻，”萨摩亚副总理穆利波拉·阿纳罗萨·阿莱-莫利奥奥说。
“Multilateralism is under siege,” said Mulipola Anarosa Ale-Molioʻo, Samoa’s deputy prime minister.
因此，今年联大领导人会议的主题是“重建信任”，这并不令人意外。从大量关于信任已破裂的发言来看，显而易见，必须有所让步，正如阿尔及利亚外长艾哈迈德·阿塔夫所言，要建立“一个共同的家园，而不是一个被强权政治挟持的组织”。
It’s not surprising, then, that the theme of this year’s leaders’ meeting at the General Assembly was “restoring trust.”From the barrage of remarks about it being broken, it seemed obvious that something needs to give in order to, as Algerian Foreign Minister Ahmed Attaf put it, create “a shared home rather than an organization held hostage to the dominance of power politics.”
斯里兰卡外长维吉塔·赫拉特说：“有些问题是任何单一国家都无法解决的。”数十篇发言揭示的一个争议点，在于两个至关重要的概念——多边主义与主权——之间的摩擦。从朝鲜到马绍尔群岛，各国援引崇高原则呼吁通力合作，同时又强调绝不允许其主权权利受到侵犯。这产生了仍未解决的矛盾。
“There are problems,” said the foreign minister of Sri Lanka, Vijitha Herath, “which no country can solve alone.”One sticking point that the scores of speeches revealed was the scratchiness between two vital notions — multilateralism and sovereignty. Nations from North Korea to the Marshall Islands invoked high principles to say that all must work together while simultaneously underscoring that they will never allow their sovereign rights to be violated. This produces contradictions that remain unsolved.
卢森堡国家元首吉约姆大公说：“我们从未如此紧密相连，却越来越无法彼此信任。”
“We have never been so connected, yet we are increasingly unable to trust one another,” said Grand Duke Guillaume, Luxembourg’s head of state.
美国个人主义传统在此扮演了角色，这体现在特朗普对联合国始终咄咄逼人的基调上。对许多美国人而言，多边主义隐约回响着“世界政府”的阴影，以及放弃权力——从而放弃自由——给其他利益相关者的观念。这种特质虽在联合国会议中常处于隐性状态，但却是许多担心遭受侵犯、战争和统治的国家的真实写照。
The tradition of American individualism plays a role here, as embodied by Trump’s consistently aggressive tone toward the U.N. To many in the United States, multilateralism hints at dark echoes of “one world government” and the notion of giving up power — and thus liberty — to other stakeholders. This trait, while often recessive in U.N. meetings, is true of many nations that fear incursion, war and domination.
然而现实是，多边主义是当今世界运作的方式——在经济上，可以说在政治上也是如此。从人工智能到气温升高，许多国家根本无法单打独斗。虽然今年人工智能合作是核心议题，但中国等国家提出的展望同样引人注目——即每个国家必须自主决定如何应对这项新兴技术。
In reality, though, multilateralism is the way the world works today — economically and, arguably, politically. From AI to rising temperatures, many nations just aren’t equipped to go it alone. And while cooperation on AI was a centerpiece this year, so too was the outlook that nations such as China offered — that each country must make its own decisions about the emerging technology.
“单靠国家自身无法取得进展，”摩纳哥国务部长克里斯托夫·米尔曼表示。
“States alone cannot make progress,” said Christophe Mirmand, Monaco’s minister of state.
多边主义的呼声历来在大小国家会晤时存在，自2020-21年新冠疫情爆发以来愈发高涨，当时大多数会议都以远程形式举行。随着成员国——尤其是面临暖流威胁生存的岛国——日益主张世界是“发生在他们身上”而非“与他们共同发生”，这一呼声进一步被放大。
The hue and cry for multilateralism, always present when smaller nations meet larger ones, has been growing since the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020-21, when most of the meetings were held remotely. It has been amplified further as members — particularly island nations, whose very existence is threatened by warming oceans — increasingly assert that the world is happening at them rather than with them.
这些小国表示，如果利益各异的大国能够独自决定所有超越国界的重大问题与机遇，那么它们将被远远甩在后面。唯一的答案，它们说，是一个真正实现声音平等、并有决心让这一原则落地的联合国。
If bigger countries with different interests can make all the major decisions on problems and opportunities that transcend map borders, these smaller nations say, then they will be left in the dust. The only answer, they say, is a United Nations that truly equalizes voices and has the fortitude to make that principle stick.
“给小国的信息很明确：只能拥有我们允许你们拥有的主权，”巴哈马总理菲利普·爱德华·戴维斯说。“需要许可的主权不是主权。”每当联合国召开会议，其起源故事——第二次世界大战——总潜伏在背景中。这一点在谈论扩大安理会及其常任理事国时表现得尤为明显。
“The message to small nations is clear: Be as sovereign as we allow you to be,” said Philip Edward Davis, prime minister of the Bahamas. “A sovereignty that requires permission is not a sovereignty.”Whenever the United Nations gathers, its origin story is always lurking in the background: World War II. Nowhere is that more evident than when talk of expanding the Security Council and its permanent members comes up.
拥有联合国唯一真正权力的15国安理会，设有五个常任理事国——美国、俄罗斯、英国、中国和法国——它们拥有否决权。其他国家轮流担任非常任理事国，权力有限；它们既不能行使否决权，也无法阻止否决权。这五个国家自始至终掌握着大权（俄罗斯以苏联身份）。对许多其他国家而言，这是不可接受的。
The 15-member Security Council, which holds the U.N.'s only real authority, has five permanent members — the United States, Russia, Britain, China and France — that hold veto power. While other nations rotate in and out, their power is limited; they can neither veto nor prevent vetoes. Those five nations have held the power since the beginning (in Russia’s case, as the Soviet Union). For so many other nations, that’s not OK.
“否决权是个遗留问题，”所罗门群岛总理马修·韦尔说道，该国的生存正受到气候变化的威胁。许多岛国希望在安理会获得常任代表权。智利总统何塞·安东尼奥·卡斯特的措辞更为强硬：“我们根本无法继续遵循1945年建立的秩序规则来应对2026年的局势。”非洲获得常任代表权的想法——目前非洲拥有三个轮换席位——长期以来一直是非洲领导人的目标，他们每年都在谈论此事。他们的声音越来越大，态度也越来越坚决。
“The veto is a relic,” said Matthew Wale, prime minister of the Solomon Islands, whose existence is threatened by climate change. Many island nations want permanent representation on the council. José Antonio Kast, Chile’s president, put it more forcefully: “We simply cannot continue to play by the same rules of an order that was established in 1945 in 2026.”The notion of permanent representation for Africa, which currently holds three rotating seats, has long been a goal of African leaders, who speak about it every year. They’re getting louder, and they’re getting more adamant.
“非洲不能再置身于塑造其命运的局势之外，”刚果共和国外交部长康斯坦特-塞尔日·布恩达表示。他和其他人希望为非洲争取两个拥有否决权的安理会常任席位。“非洲不是在请求恩惠，”他说，“而是在主张其应有的地位。”这些各方的呼声汇聚在一起，指向了本次会议的主题。人人尊重联合国，人人看到其乐观、平等的民族大家庭愿景中蕴含的潜力。
“Africa can no longer remain on the sidelines of situations that shape its destiny,” said Constant-Serge Bounda, the Republic of Congo’s foreign minister. He and others want two permanent Security Council seats for Africa — with veto power. “Africa is not asking for a favor,” he said. “It is claiming its rightful place.”Taken together, these various outcries point back to the theme of the meeting. Everyone respects the United Nations. Everyone sees potential in its optimistic, egalitarian vision of a fraternity of nations.
但即便在赞美可能性的同时，如此多领导人谴责现实的事实，在本周结束后留下了难以忽视的回响：少说空话，多干实事。是的，让所有声音都被听见。但随后要采取行动。
But even as they praise the possibilities, the fact that so many leaders denounce the reality left an echo after this week that is hard to ignore: Stop talking. Start doing. Yes, let all voices be heard. But then act.
正如奥地利欧洲及国际事务部长贝亚特·梅因尔-赖辛格所言：“联合国的成立不是为了讨论国际问题，而是为了解决国际问题。”对许多上周登上讲台的领导人而言，这根本就没有发生。
Or, as Beate Meinl-Reisinger, Austria’s minister for European and International Affairs, framed it: “The United Nations was not created to discuss international problems. It was created to solve them.”To many who ascended to the rostrum this past week, that simply is not happening.
特德·安东尼自2018年起负责美联社对联大年度领导人会议的报道，自1994年起从事国际事务报道。
Ted Anthony has overseen Associated Press coverage of the U.N. General Assembly’s annual meeting of leaders since 2018 and has been covering international affairs since 1994.