UN secretary-general supports Security Council reforms, new world order

UN Secretary-General António Guterres has reiterated his support for reforms to the UN Security Council and the entire Bretton Woods system to make them relevant to contemporary global political and economic developments.

Speaking on the last day of the BRICS Summit in Johannesburg, Guterres said: “Today’s global governance structures reflect yesterday’s world. They were largely created in the aftermath of World War II, when many African countries were still ruled by colonial powers and were not even at the table.

“And this is particularly true of the Security Council of the United Nations and the Bretton Woods institutions. For multilateral institutions to remain truly universal they must reform to reflect today’s power and economic realities, and not the power and economic realities of the post Second World War.”

Multipolarity without strong multi-lateral institutions was also one of the key reasons Europe was plunge into World War I, the UN chief said. Without adequate reforms, fragmentation is inevitable, he added.

Established in 1944 with an internationally negotiated set of rules for global trade, one of the Bretton Woods system’s key premises was coupling currency convertibility to the US dollar.

It also was the starting point of such contemporary multilateral financial institutions as the International Monetary Fund and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

However, the emerging economies forming part of BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) have started looking at ways to be less reliant on the dollar by using their own currencies when doing business. The United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Ethiopia, Argentina, and Egypt were invited to join BRICS.

Guterres said the world was becoming multipolar and this was a “good thing”, but it is not enough without global governance institutions that could bring the world community together to combat the challenges it faces.

“You need to have some global governance institutions, multilateral institutions to be able to bring together the international community in addressing these challenges,” Guterres said.

According to Guterres, the world faced a host of “enormous” challenges, including climate change, a cost-of-living crisis, and a dramatic increase in poverty, hunger and inequality around the globe.

“We are confronted by an existential crisis that includes climate change, which is getting out of control, inequality, and modern technology, which is raising red flags at times of war like in Ukraine.

“We are also moving towards a multipolar world, and that is a great thing. This move must be supported by strong multipolar institutions," Guterres said.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov noted that the expanded BRICS would become one of the key pillars of a future, fair, multipolar world order based on UN principles.

• Additional reporting by Siyabonga Sithole and Ntombi Nkosi

Cape Times