‘A global challenge is a challenge for all of us together and for each country individually,’ the president warned on speaking at the plenary session of the Valdai International Debate Club, a meeting in the city of Sochi.

He noted that if all nations are able to appreciate the concrete benefits of cooperation in facing current challenges, their readiness and understanding of the importance of joint work will increase.

‘To stimulate such work, for example, it is necessary to create at the UN level a registry of challenges and threats facing individual countries, as well as their possible consequences for other States,’ Putin indicated.

The president believed that such a road map could encourage many States to take an interest in global problems and assess what benefits they can derive from cooperation.

Putin acknowledged the need to reform international institutions, but underscored that the UN ‘remains an enduring value for all, at least today,’ he said.

According to the head of State, in the current turbulent world, the UN preserves health in international relations, which he considered indispensable for normalization of the world situation.

He highlighted that the UN has its own normative spirit based on the principles of equality and maximum respect for all opinions; therefore, he urged to reform the organization by protecting that heritage.

For Putin, humanity is facing a crisis of approaches and principles that determine human beings’ existence on Earth. ‘The question is in which direction to move, what to reject, what to revise or adjust,’ he commented.

In that sense, the president said to be convinced of the need to fight for genuine values, ‘defending them with all our strength,’ he set out.

The Valdai International Debate Club was created in 2004, and its main promoters were the Russian Foreign and Defense Policy Council, the RIA Novosti news agency and other Russian media. Its meetings are held every year in different venues.

ef/omr/msm/mml