Obama seeks new era of engagement with world

US President Barack Obama, on Friday, sought a new era of engagement with the world where power is no longer a "zero-sum game" as he asked them to share responsibility for tackling key challenges of security and prosperity. In his maiden address to the United Nations General Assembly in New York, Obama said touched every topic from mid-east crisis to North Korea, Iran, climate change and the global economic crisis.

"In an era where our destiny is shared, power is no longer a zero-sum game. No world order that elevates one nation or group of people over another will succeed. That is the future America wants," Obama said in his address, which was keenly watched by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi. Telling the leaders of the countries present that the time has come for the world to move in a "new direction", Obama said: "Our work must begin now." The President said he will never apologise for defending interests of the US, but at the same time sought to dispel what he described has become "an almost reflexive anti-Americanism" that has swept the globe.

On climate change, he asked every country to work towards to confront the menace, saying there can be no peace without cooperative work to preserve the planet. Obama said the danger posed by climate change cannot be denied and "our responsibility to meet it must not be deferred." 

Obama said: "Extremists sowing terror in pockets of the world. Protracted conflicts that grind on and on. Genocide and mass atrocities. More and more nations with nuclear weapons. Melting ice caps and ravaged populations. Persistent poverty and pandemic disease." "I say this not to sow fear, but to state a fact: the magnitude of our challenges has yet to be met by the measure of our action," he said. Obama said it was time for talks without preconditions to resolve disagreements on security for Israelis and Palestinians, borders, refugees and the status of Jerusalem itself.

He said Iran and North Korea "must be held accountable" if they continue to put their pursuit of nuclear weapons ahead of international security. He also made it clear that the two countries must back off their interest in nuclear arms. "The world must stand together to demonstrate that international law is not an empty promise and that treaties will be enforced," he said. Obama has said the door is open to Iran to discuss the issue, but that US patience is not limitless.

Image: US President Barack Obama during his speech at the United Nations General assembly in New York.

Photograph: Jay Mandal

Read the full text of Obama's speech at the United Nations.