Something happened at the United Nations this week that, at least in the Greek press, has received remarkably little attention
On September 21, during the high-level week of the 81st United Nations General Assembly, a new international grouping called Partners for Multilateralism, or P4M, was launched in New York. Its initial co-sponsors were Australia, Barbados, Brazil, Canada, the European Union, India and Kenya. Fifteen additional signatories joined the declaration, including Norway, Spain, Finland, Albania, Croatia, Moldova, Uruguay — and two names that immediately stand out to any Greek reader: Cyprus and Türkiye. Greece is not on the list.
This is not simply another gathering devoted to exchanging diplomatic pleasantries. The declaration commits its members to strengthening multilateral cooperation and reforming the international system, particularly the United Nations. It also explicitly addresses trade, global supply chains, international finance, digital transformation, artificial intelligence, climate change and global health. The members call for a fairer and more resilient trading system and closer coordination on international finance. They describe the new framework as open, inclusive, networked and practical.
There is no new army here, no common currency, and no treaty creating a new supranational government. P4M describes itself instead as a flexible framework through which countries from different regions can coordinate and pursue practical cooperation. Its stated purpose is to strengthen, rather than replace, the existing multilateral system centered on the UN. The declaration specifically endorses UN reform through initiatives such as UN80 and calls for stronger cooperation with regional organizations.
But the membership deserves a closer look.
Cyprus and Türkiye are sitting at the same new multilateral table.
Of course, that fact does not settle the Cyprus dispute. It does not erase the disagreements between the two governments, and the P4M declaration does not claim that it does. It simply means that both governments have signed the same document committing themselves to cooperation on a broad range of international questions. President Nikos Christodoulides attended the inaugural summit in New York and welcomed the initiative, saying that multilateralism, the UN Charter and international law remain essential to international peace and security.
Greece, meanwhile, is conducting an extensive diplomatic program of its own during the UN General Assembly. Foreign Minister George Gerapetritis' schedule includes meetings concerning the Middle East, Ukraine, Africa, UN reform and multilateral cooperation, as well as trilateral meetings with Cyprus and Egypt and Cyprus and Jordan. He is also meeting counterparts from Brazil and India and participating in a Greece-India event on artificial intelligence.
There is therefore a simple fact worth putting on the table — without attaching an explanation to it: a new international forum has appeared in New York, its agenda reaches from trade and finance to AI and UN reform, Cyprus and Türkiye have joined it, and Greece has not. Whether that matters, why it happened, whether Athens was approached, or whether Greece simply has different diplomatic priorities are questions for another story — and perhaps for the Greek government itself. For now, the membership list speaks for itself.
Addendum: The Bet
P4M is, in the end, a bet. Its members are betting that countries do not have to agree on everything to cooperate on something that matters — and that cooperation can create its own momentum. The potential incentives are hardly abstract. A country joining the forum gains another place to coordinate on trade and supply chains, finance, artificial intelligence, digital infrastructure, climate and global health, while helping shape the rules that may govern those areas rather than simply accepting rules made elsewhere. The declaration specifically calls for more resilient supply chains, reform of the multilateral trading system and stronger coordination on international finance and AI. The Canadian prime minister, Mark Carney, has been one of the loudest advocates of precisely this approach. He has argued that countries with common interests can move ahead together without waiting for unanimity: build trust, demonstrate what works, and then bring successful solutions back into the larger international system. Perhaps that is the real wager behind P4M — that in a world increasingly organized around great-power rivalry, smaller and middle powers can discover that collective leverage can itself be a force to be reckoned with.
No comments:
Post a Comment