United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Tuesday warned leaders of an “increasingly chaotic” world order while speaking at the opening session of the UN General Assembly in New York.
The secretary general’s statement preceded United States President Donald Trump’s speech that claimed Washington’s many achievements and rejected “the idea of globalism”, Reuters reported. Trump’s claims triggered laughter from several members at the session. “We will never surrender America’s sovereignty to an unelected, unaccountable, global bureaucracy,” Trump said.
In his address, Guterres did not lay blame on anyone in particular but said that the much-needed multilateralism approach was under threat. “Individual leaders have the duty to advance the well-being of their people,” Guterres said. “As guardians of the common good, we also have a duty to promote and support a reformed, reinvigorated and strengthened multilateral system.”
Guterres said the “politics of pessimism” was detrimental to progress. “Those who see their neighbours as dangerous may cause a threat where there was none. Those who close their borders to regular migration only fuel the work of traffickers,” Guterres said. “And those who ignore human rights in combating terrorism tend to breed the very extremism they are trying to end.”
The UN chief stressed on the importance of addressing climate change and announced a summit in September 2019 to address the challenge. “If we do not change course in the next two years, we risk runaway climate change,” Guterres said.
Guterres’ address also highlighted the conflicts in Syria and Yemen, the suffering of Rohingya Muslims, and the challenges of terrorism, non-proliferation and the use of chemical weapons.
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