Foreign
UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, on Tuesday, warned leaders that world order is “increasingly chaotic, trust is at breaking point and shifts in the balance of power may increase the risk of confrontation.”
However, he did not lay blame.
As U.S. President Donald Trump prepared to tout protection of U.S. sovereignty at the annual UN gathering of world leaders, Guterres told the 193-member UN General Assembly that multilateralism is under fire when it is needed most.
“Individual leaders have the duty to advance the well-being of their people.
“But it runs deeper. As guardians of the common good, we also have a duty to promote and support a reformed, reinvigorated and strengthened multilateral system,” Guterres said.
He called for a renewed commitment to a rules-based order with the UN at its center and warned against a spreading “politics of pessimism.”
“Those that 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.
“And those who ignore human rights in combating terrorism tend to breed the very extremism they are trying to end,” Guterres said.
He also urged leaders to tackle climate change with a greater sense of ambition and urgency and said he would hold a summit on the issue in September 2019.
The Trump administration withdrew from a global accord to reduce emissions in 2017.
“If we do not change course in the next two years, we risk runaway climate change,” Guterres said. (Reuters/NAN)
– Sept. 25, 2018 @ 15:15 GMT |
Tags: UN chief warn leaders of ‘increasingly chaotic’ world order
