In India for the G20 Leaders’ Summit and addressing a long-felt demand by India and many countries of the global south, the UN Secretary General António Guterres said like the ‘outdated’ global financial architecture, the UN Security Council too is in need of urgent reforms.
Addressing a press conference in New Delhi’s UN office on Friday, Guterres said, “The global financial architecture is outdated, dysfunctional, and unfair. It requires deep, structural reform. And the same can be said of the United Nations Security Council.”
Notably, Stephane Dujarric, spokesperson for the UN Secretary-General said on Thursday in Jakarta that Gutterres has been a “strong advocate” for India's inclusion in the permanent seat for UN Security Council.
Dujarric was speaking on the sidelines of the ASEAN-India Summit and East Asia Summit in Jakarta, which was also attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Citing the Upanishads, the UN head said on the eve of the two-day G20 top event that begins Saturday that India’s supreme spiritual texts are “not just as a timeless ideal, but an indictment of our times” and that the world today is a “rather dysfunctional one”.
“We today resemble a rather dysfunctional one. Divisions are growing, tensions are flaring up, and trust is eroding – which together raise the spectre of fragmentation, and ultimately, confrontation. This fracturing would be deeply concerning in the best of times—but in our times, it spells catastrophe.”
“Our world is in a difficult moment of transition. The future is multipolar—but our multilateral institutions reflect a bygone age.”
Upanishads are the esoteric texts of the highest levels of the Indian philosophic tradition.
Hoping that India’s presidency of the G20 will help lead to the “kind of transformative change our world so desperately needs”, Guterres said, “We need effective international institutions rooted in 21st century realities based on the UN Charter and international law.”
“That is why I have been advocating for bold steps to make those global institutions truly universal and representative of today’s realities, and more responsive to the needs of developing economies. We have no time to lose. Wars and conflicts are multiplying– but efforts to advance peace are faltering.”
“New technologies are raising red flags – but actions to contain the risks remain too slow, and too piecemeal,” the UN chief said.
“I have come to the G20 with a simple but urgent appeal: we cannot go on like this. We must come together and act together for the common good,” Guterres added.