Sri Lanka, Sept. 28 -- Calls for reform of the United Nations (UN) are not new. For decades, the Global South has urged changes that would make the organisation more representative, more democratic, and more responsive to the needs of the majority of its Members. Yet, when United States (US) President Donald Trump and Finland's President Alexander Stubb stood before the General Assembly in New York this week calling for sweeping reform, their demands echoed a very different agenda.

In President Stubb's speech, he said there are more wars today than at any time since 1945. He said that no State should hold a veto in the Security Council (UNSC). He cited the War in Ukraine and Israel's breaches of international law in the Palestinian terri...