Progress was not limited to Syria. Iran and the United States used UN settings for overtures aimed at reversing decades of tension. High-level meetings brought progress on the democratic transitions in Myanmar and Yemen, the complex crisis in the Sahel, and implementation of the peace framework for the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Great Lakes region. UN member states pledged strong support for Syria's neighbors, which are hosting 2 million refugees, and the Middle East Quartet (the UN, the US, the European Union and Russia) met for the first time in more than a year to support the recent resumption of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.

Nor were the gains of the General Assembly's opening weeks confined to immediate peace and security challenges. The UN also pressed ahead on sustainable development - our most critical long-term challenge.

The year 2015 will be a historic opportunity: simultaneously the deadline for achieving the Millennium Development Goals, adopting a new post-2015 development agenda, and completing a new agreement on climate change. The MDGs have captured our imagination, focused our efforts and saved millions of lives. They have proven how development aid and partnership among diverse actors can help build a better world.

Yet on some goals, we lag badly, and too many people are excluded or face exploitation, from mines to fields to factory floors. As we strive to finish the job on one set of goals and define another for the post-2015 period, there is already broad consensus that women's rights, governance and action on the overarching threat of climate change must figure prominently. I will hold a Climate Summit next September in New York, and many leaders have already indicated their intention to attend.

The UN is an agile first-responder at times of disaster, and often a last resort for problems found too vexing for others. At times, the UN is in the lead, at others it is among a constellation of actors. At times, we reach our goals; sometimes we fall short. But the UN works every single day, round the clock, round the globe, to advance the goals of humankind in the most trying circumstances.

Diplomacy and multilateral action continue to show their worth as the first and best option for addressing both the crises of the present and the complex challenges of our shared future. The centrality of the UN today reflects the global logic of our times: with our fates ever more entwined, our future must be one of ever deeper and wider cooperation.

The author is the secretary-general of the United Nations.

(China Daily 10/14/2013 page9)