A UN Security Council high-level meeting on the Palestinian question is held at the UN headquarters in New York, Sept. 23, 2025. [Photo/Xinhua]

Despite its enormous achievements in the past 80 years, the United Nations is facing unprecedented challenges that -- if unaddressed -- could erode its authority in the future.

The past 80 years have seen remarkable progress. The United Nations has built a multilateral international order centered on the UN Charter, promoted sustainable development, advanced global climate action, advocated for gender equality and women's empowerment, focused on child welfare, alleviated humanitarian crises, and safeguarded human rights and dignity.

The United Nations' achievements in disarmament, environmental protection, food security, international trade, and many other areas are also commendable.

Yet, at this pivotal moment, the international community must ask: how can the world ensure the United Nations continues to deliver in a world undergoing profound transformation?

The answer lies in strengthening multilateralism, upholding the principles of the UN Charter, and ensuring that all countries -- developed and developing alike -- have an equal voice in global governance. What the world needs is not less multilateralism, but more.

During the past 80 years, the U.S.-led West has largely shaped global rules on trade and security. However, with the rise of the BRICS and the rest of the Global South, the West is struggling to adapt and is unwilling to accept the reality of its relative decline in power and influence.

Until the West views the Global South countries as equal partners, it will become increasingly difficult for the United Nations to function effectively as a multilateral platform. Major-power rivalry has become the norm. Bloc politics is intensifying. Unilateralism is rampant. The purposes and principles of the UN Charter are constantly being undermined.

Faced with global challenges concerning human survival, such as climate change, nuclear disarmament and AI governance, humanity needs multilateralism and solidarity more than ever.

Many challenges facing the United Nations are structural. Developing countries remain underrepresented in the international body's decision-making, while the authority and effectiveness of the United Nations face growing strain in coping with the new realities of today's world.

It is against this backdrop that China has put forward the Global Governance Initiative (GGI), offering a timely and practical blueprint to make global governance more fair, inclusive and effective.

The initiative rests on five core concepts: adhering to sovereign equality, abiding by the international rule of law, practicing multilateralism, advocating a people-centered approach, and focusing on taking real actions. Fully aligned with the UN Charter, these principles provide a framework to make global governance fairer, more inclusive, and more effective. In essence, the GGI is another global public good that China offers to the world.

From conflicts and humanitarian crises to climate emergencies and the disruptive potential of artificial intelligence, today's challenges are deeply interconnected and demand cooperative solutions. Empty talk cannot resolve them -- real action is needed. The GGI provides precisely such an action-oriented framework, reinforcing solidarity and shared responsibility among nations.

In his "state-of-the-world" address to the General Assembly before the opening of the General Debate on Tuesday, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres stressed the significance of multilateralism as well as the United Nations in today's world.

"In a world where threats leap borders, isolation is an illusion. No country can stop a pandemic alone. No army can halt rising temperatures. No algorithm can rebuild trust once it is broken," he said.

In the face of mounting challenges, revitalizing multilateral cooperation is the only way to strengthen the United Nations' central role and uphold the principles of the UN Charter, and China's GGI offers a timely and practical blueprint to guide that effort.