World chaotic & unpredictable, must prevent death of truth: UN’s Antonio Guterres

The world is “much more chaotic, much less predictable” than during the Cold War, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told a press conference on Friday, warning that the situation is dangerous because there are no “instruments” to deal with crises.

Referring to the Cold War between the US and the former Soviet Union, he said there were clear rules and mechanisms to prevent conflict. It “never became hot because there was a certain level of predictability,” he said, adding that he wouldn’t call the dangerous situation today a Cold War or a Hot War but probably “a new form of tepid confrontation”.

At the media interaction, Guterres, who is starting his second term as UN secretary-general, said his message to Russian President Vladimir Putin “is that there should not be any military intervention” in Ukraine. “I am convinced it will not happen, and I strongly hope to be right,” he said.

The AP reported Guterres as saying in an interview on Thursday that the world is worse in many ways than it was five years ago because of the pandemic, the climate crisis and geopolitical tensions.

In the interview, he said the UN Security Council, which does have the power to uphold international peace and security including by imposing sanctions and ordering military action, is divided, especially its five veto-wielding permanent members. Russia and China are often at odds with the US, Britain and France on key issues.

“I always advocated for the need for a unified global market, a unified global economy,” Guterres said at the press conference. “At the present moment there are a number of differences and I’ve been advocating both with the US and China on the importance of a serious dialogue and a serious negotiation on the aspect of trade and technology in which the two countries have… different positions.”

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Guterres reiterated to the media that he considered the global landscape “not a pretty picture.”

“I see a five-alarm global fire,” the secretary-general said. “Each of the alarms is feeding off the others. They are accelerants to an inferno.” He was referring to the pandemic, a morally bankrupt global financial system, the climate crisis, lawlessness in cyberspace, and diminished peace and security.

He further talked about inequity and injustice in tackling the COVID pandemic, “a global economic system rigged against the poor,” insufficient action on “the existential climate threat” and “a wild west digital frontier that profits from division”.

According to Guterres, all these “social and economic fires” are creating conflict in the world and fuelling mistrust. “In every corner of the world, we see this erosion of core values. Equality. Justice. Cooperation. Dialogue. Mutual respect,” he reportedly said.

All nations must restore “human dignity and human decency” and “prevent the death of truth”, the UN secretary-general said.

He also stressed the need for countries to go “into emergency mode”, and the response will determine outcomes for decades ahead.

Finally, Guterres told the AP in his interview that the “secretary-general of the U.N. has no power. We can have influence. I can persuade. I can mediate, but I have no power”.