Antonio Guterres lays out vision for second term as UN chief

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Secretary-General Antonio Guterres laid out his vision for a second term as U.N. chief on Friday, calling for a “surge in diplomacy for peace,” urging the world’s nations to avoid a new type of Cold War, and stressing that in the 21st century everything from the climate crisis to nuclear proliferation and the pushback on human rights is inter-linked.

Guterres is the only candidate in the race so far, and he won support during a three-hour question-and-answer session in the 193-member General Assembly from two major groups -- the 120-member Nonaligned Movement of mainly developing nations and the 27-member European Union -- as well as smaller groups and individual countries.

In his opening presentation, Guterres painted a grim picture of a world where “more and more people live within their own echo chambers ... (and) are lured by misinformation, populism, extremism, xenophobia and racism.” He called it “a kind of post-enlightenment era that has nurtured irrational, even nihilistic belief systems, spreading fear, denying science and truth.” And he reiterated his warning about “the new geostrategic divide and dysfunctional power relations, making international cooperation infinitely more difficult at a time when we need it most.”

Guterres stressed his strong belief in nations working together to solve the world’s crises and conflicts but said multilateralism “depends a lot on the establishment of trust among member states, and on making functional relationship among the biggest powers.”

“If there is no trust among member states and if the relationship among the biggest powers remains dysfunctional, then there’s not much the multilateral system can do,” he said. “If those two things are properly addressed, then I think there is a chance for...