David Miliband warns of an age of impunity as Zelensky addresses UN

David Miliband, head of the International Rescue Committee and a former UK foreign secretary, used the UN General Assembly to warn that the world has entered an age of impunity. Speaking as smoke still hung over Kyiv, he said the values of the institution set up to keep international peace could not feel further away.

Miliband told an interviewer that there are 65 wars, more than at any time since the Second World War, and 300 million people in humanitarian need even before the Iran war began in February. He said the numbers showed might replacing right, and called that very dangerous. He singled out Donald Trump as the man most undermining the international rules-based order.

He was asked whether the UK should push back against leaders who attack that order, or work with them. He said there was no point picking an argument for argument's sake, and praised the Prime Minister for cutting a determined and clear figure during his two days at the gathering. He also referred to Andy Burnham getting on with Trump without drama, and to UK engagement on Chagos and in the Middle East with Saudi Arabia.

Miliband said it was premature to talk about middle powers flexing their muscles, but right to talk about them mustering for a tough decade. He argued the superpowers would not play the anchoring role in the global system that the US played after 1945, and warned of a void in international leadership. On artificial intelligence, he said the political West beyond the US, including European countries and Japan, was a bigger market than America. He pointed to a declaration on Sunday led by Finland and Norway and backed by countries including South Africa and the United Arab Emirates, saying frontier models must be properly policed and cannot be left only to tech companies.

On refugees, Miliband said people trapped in war zones in Gaza or Ukraine are not refugees, but people in their own homes being bombarded. He drew a distinction between those displaced inside their own countries and refugees and asylum seekers. He said anyone fleeing for their life deserves protection, a principle established after 1945, but accepted that many applicants do not meet the criteria of a well-founded fear of persecution. He said that was shown by evidence from appeals.

Later, while the interview was being broadcast, Volodymyr Zelensky spoke at the General Assembly. The Ukrainian president called Russia's war on his country ridiculous and never-ending, and said that when Russia had money it always said no to diplomacy.