Is the world entering a new Cold War? (Source bbc.com) Multilateralism is in serious disarray, as the former UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon has observed. President Donald Trump’s America First foreign policy has seen the US thumb its nose at multilateral agreements from the Paris Climate accord to the Iran nuclear deal, while China is visibly positioning itself as the new supporter of the United Nations. But growing Chinese influence comes at a price, and if Beijing is devoting more money to fund UN agencies like the World Health Organization then it will want more say as a result. The UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres spoke of a foundational moment facing the UN – those who built the United Nations knew the value of unity, he noted, since they had lived through war and an earlier pandemic. Anxieties about what the US China rivalry means for global stability abounded at this remote gathering of world leaders. There was no disguising the urgency of French President Emmanuel Macron’s tone, as he said in his pre-recorded remarks that today’s world can’t be left to the rivalry between China and the US. That rivalry, which has seen the two countries lock horns on everything from trade to technology, is becoming increasingly acrimonious – and President Trump dialled up the rhetoric, using his platform on the world stage to rail against what he called the China virus.