Good choice for UN chief

The permanent members of the UN Security Council have chosen Antonio Guterres, a former prime minister of Portugal, to succeed Ban Ki-moon as secretary-general. The appointment to the initial five-year term still needs approval by the 193-member UN General Assembly, but that should be a formality.

There is little question that Guterres, 67, is up to the job. Portugal, a country of nearly 11 million, has a complex economy and foreign policy that spreads across the world, as a result of Portugal having been an important world power. He served as the UN’s high commissioner for refugees from 2005 through 2015. The flow of refugees is one of the pre-eminent problems facing the world today, with the UN inevitably playing a critical role in dealing with it.

The UN secretary-general is unavoidably one of this world’s key figures, ranking with the American, Chinese and Russian presidents, the German chancellor and the Pope. Apart from the political problems that sometimes require UN intervention to reach a conclusion, there are the global problems. These are issues that must be attacked on a universal basis if they are to have any chance of being dealt with successfully.

Epidemics of disease are one example; climate change is another. Peacekeeping in places where no nation wishes to involve itself is another. The United Nations picks up the problems that all wish to see addressed but are the porcupines of world diplomacy that no one wants to pick up.

There was discussion of the need to choose a woman as secretary-general for the first time. There were initially a dozen or so candidates for the job. But agreement was not reached among the permanent members — China, France, Russia, Britain and the United States — and Guterres was finally chosen after weeks of discussion.

That does not mean that he was a compromise choice. He gives every appearance of being well prepared to serve the world in this almost impossible mission. He deserves and requires the support of all countries represented at the UN in performing his duties.