António Guterres, UN Secretary General: “The world must wake up, it has never been so threatened”

The UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, opened this Tuesday the General Assembly of the organization by sound the “wake-up call” to a world that “has never been so threatened or so divided”.

“The world must wake up. We are on the brink of an abyss and are heading in the wrong direction ”, Guterres told international leaders meeting in New York

The Portuguese diplomat presented a grim analysis of the international situation, marked according to him by the lack of unity in the response to the pandemic, little progress in the fight against climate change, growing inequalities and crises in countries like Afghanistan, Yemen and Ethiopia.

Specifically, Guterres targeted the United States and China in particular, whose requested a dialogue after the growing tensions in their relationship.

“I’m afraid that our world is moving towards two different sets of economic, business, financial and technological rules, two divergent approaches in the development of artificial intelligence and, ultimately, two different military and geopolitical strategies “said Guterres.

“It’s a recipe for trouble. It would be a lot less predictable than the Cold War. To restore confidence and inspire hope, we need cooperation, ”he said.

“We have to dialogue. We need understanding ”, added. “We need to invest in prevention, maintenance and peacebuilding. We need progress on nuclear disarmament and in our efforts to fight terrorism. We need actions rooted in respect for human rights, ”insisted António Guterres.

The summit will include the first address to the global body of the President of the United States, Joe biden, who described a rising and authoritarian China as the ultimate challenge of the 21st century.

The Chinese President, Xi Jinping, will also address the United Nations, but by video in light of the Covid restrictions.

Guterres said divisions between the two powers have delayed efforts on other key priorities, including the cancellation of coups.

In an implicit allusion to Burma, Mali, Guinea or Sudan, the UN chief he regretted having witnessed “also an explosion of seizures of power by force”.

“Military coups are back”, and “The lack of unity within the international community does not help“, to complain.

“Geopolitical divisions undermine international cooperation and limit the ability of the Security Council to take necessary decisions. At the same time, it would be impossible to overcome the dramatic economic and development challenges while the two major economies of the world are at odds “added the UN chief, pointing to Beijing and Washington.

Antonio Guterres, who is in the last year of his first term at the helm of the UN and who will begin his second term in January, already warned in 2018 of the Sino-American “division”, and described as a “new cold war” the risk of a bipolar world trapped in tensions between the two great powers.

The high-level session of the United Nations General Assembly, during which around 100 heads of state and government participate in person and dozens of ministers, after the shutdown last year due to the pandemic, it will continue until Monday.

Read on: