The Heat: Challenges ahead for new UN Secretary-General

The Heat

Antonio Guterres sworn in as UN secretary-general on December 12, 2016 at the United Nations in New York. (AFP PHOTO-Eduardo Munoz Alvarez)

The United Nations welcomed Antonio Guterres in January as its new secretary general following the end of Ban Ki-moon’s term. He inherits a daunting list of international conflicts from Syria to Yemen and South Sudan. But who is Antonio Guterres and how equipped will he be to take on these challenges?

CGTN correspondent Liling Tan reports.

Follow Liling Tan on Twitter @LilingTan

There are high hopes that Guterres is the right man for the job; as the former prime minister of Portugal and the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, Guterres is both a politician and a humanitarian.

There are no easy fixes for the problems Guterres will face as U.N. chief – the Syrian conflict is entering its sixth year, the threat of genocide looms in Burundi and South Sudan, Pyongyang’s nuclear ambitions remain unabated, and there’s global terrorism, climate change and a U.N. peacekeeping system plagued with scandals.

To discuss the challenges facing the new UN Secretary-General:

    • Zhang Xiaoan, former vice-president of the UN Association of China.
    • Raghida Dergham, columnist and senior diplomatic correspondent for the London-based newspaper, Al Hayat.
    • Chris Whatley, executive director of the United Nations Association of the United States.
    • Hugh Dugan, an international affairs scholar and expert on the United States participation in the United Nations.


For more:

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres shakes hands with Sudanese children in west Darfur in 2005. (REUTERS/ Antony Njuguna)