ATHENS, May 19 (Xinhua) -- Globalization cannot be reversed, but needs to be humanized, former Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou told Xinhua in a recent written interview in Athens, responding to calls made by a few countries lately against globalization and in favor of unilateralism due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The novel coronavirus proved how much we depend on each other, he said. "No walls can prevent a virus from spreading. It's the same with climate change."

"We cannot go back. There are issues we need to resolve in this global capitalist world. And the problem is not globalization per se, but the fact that we need to regulate and humanize global governance. We need to humanize globalization. But we cannot reverse it," he argued.

This also means that we need to re-think, not destroy, our global institutions, Papandreou said.

Papandreou shares the same view with China that cooperation and multilateralism are the only way forward to address the new challenges as well.

"Putting the interest of our peoples first, does not mean unilateralism. It means cooperation for the benefit of all, it means peaceful collaboration, learning and helping each other," he explained.

"If unilateralism becomes a lasting, major trend, we will lose precious time, as unilateralism will impede our capacity to deal with global challenges such as climate change or pandemics. It will also lead to conflict, mistrust and military buildups," he told Xinhua.

In the long run, this could lead to major catastrophes and our civilization as we know it will be destroyed, he warned.

"It is important to put aside narrow nationalistic perceptions and find a way to work together. Our countries may have different experiences, different systems, different levels of development, but we can certainly find common ground for collaborating on the most important shared problems," he stressed.