In 2016, António Guterres still had to let his network of relationships play.

This time everything went quietly in the weeks leading up to the vote.

The General Assembly of the United Nations confirmed the UN Secretary General in his office on Friday - by acclamation.

Since the 72-year-old Portuguese ran unopposed and had been nominated by the Security Council, it was considered certain that he would lead the New York world authority for another five years.

After the decision, he emphasized that he felt deeply honored and was aware of the great responsibility.

Majid Sattar

Political correspondent for North America based in Washington.

  • Follow I follow

    At the beginning of the year he announced that he would be aiming for a second term.

    Even then it was clear that the plans of some to fill the office with a woman, as in 2016, would probably fail again.

    At that time there was still a lot of wrestling in New York.

    Many Europeans supported a candidate from Eastern Europe with reference to regional proportional representation.

    But Guterres had proven all of his negotiating skills at the time.

    The former UN High Commissioner for Refugees, who had sharply criticized the Russian approach to the Syrian war, even secured Moscow's support.

    In addition, it was rumored in New York that he was said to have made promises to the Russians when they were assigned posts at headquarters;

    the Chinese too.

    Never get into Trump's crosshairs

    This time it was noiseless. The names of some female diplomats were circulating again for a short time. But Guterres' second term was an easy fix for most of them. He is credited with having prevented worse things from happening in the past few years under Donald Trump, when the attacks on the United Nations also came from the leading Western powers.

    Guterres, the former Prime Minister of Portugal and President of the Socialist International, took up his post in 2017 as a “bridge builder”, a quality that is needed in New York, since the UN is only as strong as its member states allow it - especially the UN permanent members of the Security Council who can block decisions with their veto. The most powerful body had already suffered from the blockade of Russians and Chinese before 2017. When Guterres took office, Trump also moved into the White House shortly afterwards. Despite the Republican's course of confrontation against the UN, Guterres never managed to get into Trump's crosshairs personally, also because he avoided criticizing the American personally.

    Guterres benefited from the fact that Nikki Haley, Trump's first UN ambassador, tried to strike a balance: on the one hand, she warned the world authority to cut its spending, on the other hand, she did not fundamentally question multilateralism.

    But since Trump didn't care about New York and his speeches at the General Assembly were essentially aimed at the American public, the United Nations continued to lose importance.

    Warned against “vaccination nationalism” at an early stage

    Guterres also had to accept it when Trump acted unilaterally, for example when he withdrew from the international nuclear agreement with Iran or when he recognized the Israeli annexation of the Golan Heights. Both decisions contradicted Security Council resolutions. In this respect, the new administration in Washington is also an opportunity for Guterres to restore importance to the UN. President Joe Biden has made it clear that America wants to become multilateral again.

    The second term of office begins on January 1, 2022 and lasts until the end of 2026. Guterres, the ninth UN Secretary-General, is facing major challenges. In addition to the ongoing regional conflicts, for example in Syria, Libya, Yemen and Myanmar, he is also confronted with the crisis that the pandemic means for many developing countries. At an early stage he warned of a “vaccination nationalism” and demanded that patent protection for the vaccines be lifted, with which he at least had success with Biden.

    On Friday Guterres invoked international cohesion in the face of great global challenges: “It can go in both directions: collapse and eternal crisis or breakthrough and the prospect of a greener, safer and better future for all. There are reasons to hope, ”he said. The world is "on the threshold of a new era". The complex problems of the future can only be tackled with a “modest approach”: “one for which the Secretary General alone does not have all the answers”.