BEIJING INTERNATIONAL MODEL UN 2026

Your Excellency Mr. liú zhèn mín, Climate Change Special Envoy of China,

Your Distinguished Mr. wáng shì tíng, Secretary of the Party Committee of China Foreign Affairs University,

Dear delegates, students, and young leaders,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

各位朋友下午好！

It is my pleasure to join you today at the opening of the Beijing International Model United Nations 2026.

This is a conference that has, for more than three decades, stood at the forefront of youth engagement with multilateralism in China and across the Asia‑Pacific region.

Model United Nations sessions are often described as simulations.

 

But in truth, they are much more than that. 

They are literally laboratories for future global governance.

And with global governance under criticism – or even threat – in some quarters of this world, laboratories to strengthen and safeguard multilateralism’s future could not be more important.

Here, you are not simply learning the rules of procedure.

You are learning how to listen across difference.

How to negotiate under pressure.

How to balance national interests with global responsibilities.

And how to search, sometimes painstakingly, for consensus in a divided world.

Because achieving consensus is hard – really hard, sometimes.

These are not abstract skills.

They are precisely the skills the world needs today.

We gather at a moment of profound global uncertainty.

Conflicts are spreading and becoming more complex.

Climate change is accelerating faster than our collective response.

Inequality, within and between countries, continues to widen.

And – as I have said – trust in global institutions, including multilateralism itself, is under strain.

Yet, as the UN Secretary‑General António Guterres has reminded us repeatedly, “these challenges do not respect borders, and they cannot be solved by countries acting alone”. 

That is why global governance continues to matter.

It’s why the repeated, ringing reassurances from China’s leaders of the true centrality of multilateralism and of the United Nations could not be more welcome.

I have heard this message loud and clear from all my government interlocutors since my arrival in China a few short weeks ago.

And that is why your theme this year, “Global Governance, Youth Vision” could not be more timely.

Today’s generation of young people is the largest in human history.

You are also the most connected, the most informed, and perhaps the most impatient with inaction.

And rightly so.

You are growing up in a world shaped by decisions you did not make, but whose consequences you will live with the longest. 

Climate decisions. 

Technological decisions. 

Peace and security decisions. 

Sustainable development decisions.

The United Nations is clear: youth are not just beneficiaries of global governance, they are essential partners in shaping it. 

That is why youth and future generations are now central to UN reform discussions, including those on transforming global governance for the decades ahead.

Indeed, as I am sure you know, an entire chapter of the Pact for the Future, negotiated and agreed amongs the 193 Member States of the United Nations in 2024, concerns “Youth and Future Generations”.

Over the next few days, you will debate issues ranging from climate transition and digital health governance to peace and security, development and international law, across multiple languages, regions, and historical contexts. 

These topics were not chosen at random.

They reflect the real dilemmas facing the international community today.

I encourage you to approach these debates not as competitions to be won, but as responsibilities to be carried and with consensual solutions to be found.

Ask yourselves:

• Whose voices are missing from this discussion?
• Who bears the cost of delay or inaction?
• And how can global cooperation be made more inclusive, more effective, and more just?

Many alumni of Model UN conferences go on to become diplomats, public servants, researchers, entrepreneurs, journalists, and advocates.

But regardless of where your path leads, the mindset you develop here matters.

Because global governance does not begin in New York or Geneva.

It begins with how we choose to engage with one another, with curiosity instead of fear, with empathy instead of assumption, and with a commitment to the common good.

Let me leave you with this thought.

The United Nations was founded in the aftermath of devastation, by leaders who dared to imagine cooperation where conflict had reigned.

Today, the task of re‑imagining global governance belongs increasingly to your generation.

And it does urgently need re-imagining.

As the UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres said at the Summit of the Future in 2024, “We can’t create a future fit for our grandchildren with systems built for our grandparents”.

So: be bold in your ideas.

Be rigorous in your thinking.

Be principled in your negotiations.

And above all, remember that diplomacy is not about winning arguments. 

As President Xi Jinping has reminded us, our goal must be to build a community with a shared future for humankind.

I wish you thoughtful debates, meaningful exchanges and the courage to challenge both the status quo and yourselves.

On behalf of the United Nations in China, I congratulate you on the opening of Beijing International Model United Nations 2026, and I look forward to the visions for global governance that will emerge from this room.

Thank you very much, and I wish you a successful conference.

谢谢大家!