Outgoing US President Barack Obama has said that the United Nations is a “linchpin” of the post-World War II order as he met the UN Secretary-General- designate Antonio Guterres at the White House here.
“From the perspective of the United States, the UN is a critical partner in almost everything that we do,” Obama told reporters as he met Guterres at the Oval Office yesterday.
“It is a linchpin of the post-World War II order, and through Democratic and Republican administrations, our partnership with the United Nations has allowed us to help resolve conflicts, to provide development assistance where it’s sorely needed, to tackle big transnational challenges like refugee flows or, more recently, like climate change,” Obama said.
“At a time when those challenges are mounting and there’s great uncertainty around the world, having an effective partner in the United Nations Secretary General will be critically important,” he said welcoming Guterres.
Obama said he has emphasised to current Secretary General Ban Ki-moon how important the US considers the UN but also how important it is, to make sure that the UN operates efficiently, that money is well-spent.
“We live in a dangerous world. We are all aware of that. We have seen a multiplication of conflicts. Old conflicts seem never to die,” Guterres said, adding that it is true the international community has lost a lot of its capacity to prevent and to solve conflicts.
