Not Optimistic About Immediate Impacts On Peace And Security: António Guterres

To mitigate the polarisation, the existing geopolitical crisis needs to be resolved for the progress of global peace and security. Hitherto, there have been difficult moments in the Geo-political structure, but they have never been a threat to global peace and security. The Russian invasion of Ukraine and presidential Middle East tension pose the potential damage to global peace and security. 

“The Ukraine-Russia problem with full respect to the UN Charter and the International law. We need to solve the Israel and Palestine question with the possibility of taking this problem and make it an opportunity for the two-state solution to be finally something credible and something that can mobilise the two communities to live together in harmony,” said António Guterres, Secretary General, United Nations.

In the 54th annual meeting of World Economic Forum 2024 at Davos, which is being attended by corporate leaders, political leaders, activists and other key stakeholders, United Nations’ General Secretary, António Guterres addressed a special session demanding the need for global peace and security amid volatile geo-political risks.

Guterres is apprehensive about the immediate impacts on peace and security. However, he believes a significant change can be brought in the economy, climate and technology.

He also emphasised that serious negotiations should be done between developed countries and emerging economies to attain such change. Emerging economies are gaining a bigger weight in a global economy but not in the global institutions which are dominated by the developed countries.

"We need to create the level of reforms and the level of mechanisms to support the majority of the developing countries that are drowning in debt and have no chance to recover from Covid-19 and the impacts of the invasion of Ukraine, inflation and high-interest rates. These economies are in a very dramatic situation and unable to implement the sustainable development goals," said Guterres.

He added that some progress was made in the G20 but a lot needs to be done to allow the international financial system to be able to multiply the resources available for those countries. At the same time, to support the improvements in governance, the capacity for those countries to find strategies and projects that are bankable and allow them to overcome the presentation difficulties.