HELSINKI, June 18 (Xinhua) -- Heavyweight speakers attending a high-profile security seminar in Finland have said the seemingly crumbling international system based on rules by agreements will cause problems for small countries in particular.
In the opening panel discussion on Sunday, Miroslav Lajcek, the current president of the United Nations General Assembly, Carl Bildt, former Swedish prime minister and foreign minister, and Mari Kiviniemi, former Finnish prime minister and current assistant secretary general of the OECD, all agreed in this view.
Lajcak said that "listening to the other side has been forgotten." He claimed the situation is worse than ever before.
Both Lajcak and Bildt predicted that the bottom of bad news about the world order has not been reached yet. Bildt took up the U.S. security strategy that he defined as being based on the idea that countries will compete with each other.
"The idea that all countries are each other's competitors may sound good, if you are an American, but for us Europeans such a competition leads to conflicts and wars," Bildt said.
Finnish President Sauli Niinisto deplored the diminished role of both the European Union and the United Nations in solving international conflicts.
He made the remarks when talking to the media before the annual summer think tank seminar, which takes place in the presidential summer residence in Naantali, southwestern Finland.
Former Finnish president Martti Ahtisaari said he believes in the abilities of the UN to function today as well. Ahtisaari was the laureate of Nobel Peace Prize in 2008.
The two-day seminar, now in its seventh year, will culminate with closing remarks by the UN secretary general Antonio Guterrez on Monday.
The event is available by invitation to well over a hundred Finnish politicians, researchers and journalists. The panel discussions are broadcast live on national television.
