UNITED NATIONS (AP) \u2014 Antonio Guterres took the reins of the United Nations on New Year\u2019s Day, promising to be a \u201cbridge-builder\u201d but facing an antagonistic incoming U. S. administration led by Donald Trump who thinks the world body\u2019s 193 member states do nothing except talk and have a good time.
The former Portuguese prime minister and U. N. refugee chief told reporters after being sworn-in as secretary-general on Dec. 12 that he will engage all governments \u2014 \u201cand, of course, also with the next government of the United States\u201d \u2014 and show his willingness to cooperate on \u201cthe enormous challenges that we\u2019ll be facing together.\u201d
But Trump, with his \u201cAmerica First\u201d agenda, has shown little interest in multilateralism, which Guterres says is \u201cthe cornerstone\u201d of the United Nations.
So as Guterres begins his five-year term facing conflicts from Syria and Yemen to South Sudan and Libya and global crises from terrorism to climate change, U. S. support for the United Nations remains a question mark.
And it matters because the U. S. is a veto-wielding member of the U. N. Security Council and pays 22 percent of the U. N.\u2019s regular budget and 25 percent of its peacekeeping budget.
Immediately after the United States allowed the Security Council to condemn Israeli settlements in the West Bank on Dec. 23 in a stunning rupture with past practice, Trump warned in a tweet: \u201cAs to the U. N., things will be different after Jan. 20th,\u201d the day he takes office.
Trump followed up three days later with another tweet questioning its effectiveness. \u201cThe United Nations has such great potential but right now it is just a club for people to get together, talk and have a good time. So sad!\u201d
John Bolton, a conservative Republican and former U. S. ambassador to the United Nations, said in an interview with The Associated Press that Guterres would be well advised \u201cespecially given the incoming Trump administration\u201d to follow the model of his predecessor, Ban Ki-moon, and do what member governments want.
If he tries to follow what Ban\u2019s predecessor, Kofi Annan, did as secretary-general and try to be the world\u2019s top diplomat and what some called \u201ca secular pope,\u201d Bolton said, \u201cI think especially in the Trump administration, he would run into big trouble very quickly.\u201d
Guterres has made clear that his top priority will be preventing crises and promoting peace.
In the first minute after taking over as U. N. chief on Sunday, Guterres issued an \u201cAppeal for Peace.\u201d He urged all people in the world to make a shared New Year\u2019s resolution: \u201cLet us resolve to put peace first.\u201d
\u201cLet us make 2017 a year in which we all \u2014 citizens, governments, leaders \u2014 strive to overcome our differences,\u201d the new secretary-general said.
He has said there is enormous difficulty in solving conflicts, a lack of \u201ccapacity\u201d in the international community to prevent conflicts, and the need to develop \u201cthe diplomacy for peace,\u201d which he plans to focus on.
Guterres has said he will also strive to deal with the inequalities that globalization and technological progress have helped deepen, creating joblessness and despair especially among youth.
\u201cToday\u2019s paradox is that despite greater connectivity, societies are becoming more fragmented. More and more people live within their own bubbles, unable to appreciate their links with the whole human family,\u201d he said after his swearing-in.
Guterres said the values enshrined in the U. N. Charter that should define the world that today\u2019s children inherit \u2014 peace, justice, respect, human rights, tolerance and solidarity \u2014 are threatened, \u201cmost often by fear.\u201d
\u201cOur duty to the peoples we serve is to work together to move from fear of each other, to trust in each other, trust in the values that bind us, and trust in the institutions that serve and protect us,\u201d he said. \u201cMy contribution to the United Nations will be aimed at inspiring that trust.\u201d
Guterres won the U. N.\u2019s top job after receiving high marks from almost every diplomat for his performance in the first-ever question-and-answer sessions in the General Assembly for the 13 candidates vying to replace Ban, whose second five-year term ends at midnight on Dec. 31.
In an interview during his campaign with three journalists, Guterres said the role of secretary-general should be \u201can honest broker, a consensus builder\u201d who engages as much as possible, in many circumstances discreetly.
\u201cIt\u2019s not just to have a personal agenda, because it would be regrettable or ineffective, or to appear in the limelight. No. On the contrary, it\u2019s to act with humility to try to create the conditions for member states that are the crucial actors in any process to be able to come together and to overcome their differences,\u201d he said.
Whether the Trump administration will join Guterres and U. N. efforts to tackle what he sees as \u201ca multiplication of new conflicts\u201d and the myriad problems on the global agenda remains to be seen.
Trump\u2019s choice as U. S. ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley who is the governor of South Carolina, has a reputation as a conciliator, which could be very useful especially in dealing with the Security Council and the four other permanent veto-wielding members \u2014 Russia, China, Britain and France, all of whom have their own national agendas.
But she will be taking instructions from the president.
Richard Grenell, who served as U. S. spokesman at the U. N. during President George W. Bush\u2019s administration and has been working with Trump\u2019s transition team, downplayed the prospect that Trump will withdraw from or even disregard the United Nations.
He said in an AP interview earlier this month that Trump is talking about reforming the U. N. and other international organizations so \u201cthey live up to their ideals.\u201d
Guterres also wants to reform the United Nations to make it \u201cnimble, efficient and effective.\u201d He said \u201cit must focus more on delivery and less on process, more on people and less on bureaucracy,\u201d and ensure that the more than 85,000 U. N. staff working in 180 countries are being used effectively.
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