Guterres to be sworn in as chief of UN

INCOMING UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres will take the oath of office today, hoping to show he is primed for action despite anxiety over the US role in the world under unpredictable Donald Trump.

During a formal ceremony at the General Assembly, Guterres will be sworn in before outlining in an address to all 193 UN member-states his plans to confront global crises and reform the 71-year-old United Nations.

The first former head of government at the UN helm, Guterres will take over from Ban Ki-moon on January 1, just weeks before president-elect Trump moves into the White House.

The choice of the former refugee chief as the ninth secretary-general energised many diplomats who see Guterres as a skilled politician, able to overcome divisions that have crippled the United Nations, notably over Syria.

The 67-year-old former prime minister of Portugal has put ending the five-year carnage in Syria at the top of his to-do list and is keen to put forward a new plan to achieve a settlement, diplomats say.

Trump’s election however is complicating that strategy.

“This is tough for Guterres,” said Richard Gowan, a UN expert at the European Council on Foreign Relations. “He enjoyed a wave of diplomatic goodwill at the UN and looked set for a straightforward transition. Now he will find it hard to propose big institutional reforms or float new political initiatives until the Trump team is settled in and made its intentions clear.”

Trump’s victory has put a question mark over the Paris climate deal championed by Ban during his 10 years at the UN helm and stirred unease over the prospect of new-style diplomatic dealmaking from the White House that could sideline the UN.

The United States is by far the biggest financial contributor, providing 22 percent of the UN’s operating budget and funding 28 percent of peacekeeping missions which currently cost $8 billion annually.