The U.N. secretary-general told the Munich Security Conference Friday that the current global order is not working and that millions of ordinary people are paying “a terrible price.”
“Today we see countries doing whatever they like, with no accountability,” Antonio Guterres told the annual gathering on pressing global security challenges.
He said if countries fulfilled their obligations under the United Nations Charter, “every person on earth would live in peace and dignity.”
“The problem is that many governments are ignoring these commitments,” he said.
The war in Gaza
Of the war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Guterres said nothing can justify Hamas’ terror attack on October 7, but neither does it justify Israel’s military response and the “collective punishment” of the Palestinian people.
“The situation in Gaza is an appalling indictment of the deadlock in global relations,” Guterres said. “The level of death and destruction is shocking in itself. The war is also spilling over borders across the region and affecting global trade.”
The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says nearly 29,000 Palestinians have been killed since Israel launched its military offensive following the killing of 1,200 people inside Israel in the October 7 attacks.
He reiterated international concerns that Israel is planning a full-scale ground incursion in the southern Gaza town of Rafah, which is sheltering fleeing Palestinians and is the center of the humanitarian aid operation.
“An all-out offensive on the city would be devastating for the 1.5 million Palestinian civilians who are already on the edge of survival,” the U.N. chief warned.
The war in Ukraine
February 24 will mark two years since Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine. The war has forced 6 million Ukrainians to seek safety in other countries, while 14.6 million people inside the country need humanitarian assistance.
“Two years in, the cost in human lives and suffering is appalling and the impact on the global economy has been particularly devastating for developing countries,” Guterres said.
The war triggered a surge in food and fuel prices that hit poorer countries that had not yet economically recovered from the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We desperately need a just and sustainable peace for Ukraine, for Russia and for the world,” the secretary-general said, “a peace in line with the U.N. Charter and international law, which establishes the obligation to respect the territorial integrity of sovereign states.”
Other conflicts and troubles
Guterres also urged regional and global powers to pressure parties involved in conflicts across Africa, the Middle East and Asia to negotiate peace.
Beyond current conflicts, he said, the international community needs to strengthen the global peace and security architecture to better deal with current threats and challenges.
“Those who drafted the U.N. Charter did not conceive of the climate crisis, artificial intelligence or cyber weapons,” he said.
Guterres also pressed for reform of the global financial architecture, saying that it is badly out of date, dysfunctional and unfair, and that it has failed the world’s poorest countries.
“They will owe more in debt service this year than their public spending on health, education and infrastructure — combined,” he said of struggling countries, adding there is still no effective debt relief mechanism.
“All this is a development emergency with deep implications for global security,” he said.
He urged scaled-up climate action, repeating his calls for the gradual phaseout of fossil fuels.
Guterres plans to convene a “Summit of the Future” in September on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly meetings, which will aim to chart a path forward on some of these issues.