High hopes for incoming UN Secretary General Guterres when he takes office Jan 1

World Today

It’s the end of an era as the United Nations prepares to welcome a new Secretary General.

Former Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Guterres will take over for Ban Ki-moon on January 1st as the world’s top diplomat, inheriting a daunting array of international conflicts.

CCTV America’s Liling Tan reports. Follow Liling Tan on Twitter @LilingTan

Taking the oath of office as the ninth Secretary-General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres pledged to do all he can to fix the U.N. from within and without.

There are high hopes that he’s 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.

He’s regarded by many world leaders as an honest broker, but also by his colleagues as a man of heart.

But there are no easy fixes for the problems he 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, the refugee crisis, climate change and a U.N. peacekeeping system plagued with scandals.

It’s a daunting task at a daunting time.