Guterres calls for ‘very solid cooperation’ between US, UN
WASHINGTON: UN SecretaryGeneral Antonio Guterres said here on Friday that the United Nations (UN) needs strong US engagement and a ‘very solid cooperation’ between the US and the United Nations, China’s Xinhua news agency reported.
Guterres made the remarks while meeting with US President Donald Trump at the White House.
Guterres noted that he is “a true believer that we live in a messy world but we need a strong, reformed and modernised UN.”
We’ll see what happens. I’ll report back to you in about seven years. — Donald Trump, US President
For his part, Trump said that UN has tremendous potential, but it has not been used over the years ‘nearly as it should be’.
Trump described UN as “almost a power to bring people together like nothing else,” adding he has “a feeling that things are going to happen with the United Nations like you haven’t seen before.”
“We’ve become friends,” said Trump.
“You need talent, and he’s got the talent,” he said, gesturing to Guterres.
“We’ll see what happens. I’ll report back to you in about seven years.”
The White House host has been at odds with UN ever since his presidential campaign.
He hammered UN for what he called bureaucracy and ‘mismanagement’.
Trump’s latest decision to pull the US out of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco), a UN watchdog enduring snowballing US arrears for over a decade has delivered a huge blow to the operation of the agency and raised eyebrows all over the world. — Bernama