United Nations, Sep 22: UN chief Antonio Guterres on Tuesday delivered a powerful clarion call to global leaders to reform the UN Security Council to ensure that it reflects today’s world and has the legitimacy to deal with current geopolitical challenges.
This is the final high-level UN General Assembly week for Secretary General Guterres, whose second five-year tenure as head of the United Nations ends in December 2026.
“We must also reform the Security Council so that it reflects today’s world with the legitimacy and effectiveness that today’s challenges demand,” Guterres told world leaders Tuesday in his address to the opening of the General Debate at the 81st session of the General Assembly.
Guterres, delivering his last address to the high-level UNGA debate as UN Chief, said the Security Council was designed in the aftermath of World War II. “But the world has fundamentally changed since then. A change that is far from reflected in the Security Council.”
He said the “most stunning example” of this is Africa.
“When the UN was founded, most of Africa was still under colonial rule. Today, Africa still has no permanent seat on the Council.
A 21st-century Security Council without permanent African representation is unjust and indefensible. This must change,” he said, to applause from the leaders in the UNGA hall.
After ending his nearly 35-minute and final address, Guterres received a standing ovation from world leaders, Foreign Ministers, ambassadors and diplomats and senior UN officials as he exited the podium.
“…Our institutions and systems of global governance continue to reflect the power realities and interests of a largely bygone age. That is the defining challenge before us. At the very moment when humanity faces an unprecedented convergence of threats, our mechanisms for collective action are under growing strain,” he said.
The call by Guterres to reform the 15-nation body was among the strongest by him as the powerful UN organ remains deeply divided and polarised, failing to stop conflicts and fulfil its responsibilities of maintaining international peace and security.
With sharp divisions among its five permanent, veto-wielding members – China, France, Russia, the UK and the US – the Council has remained ineffective as conflicts rage from Gaza to Russia.
India has been at the forefront of years-long efforts to reform the Security Council, including expansion in both its permanent and non-permanent categories, saying the 15-nation Council, founded in 1945, is not fit for purpose in the 21st Century and does not reflect contemporary geopolitical realities.
Delhi has consistently underscored that it rightly deserves a permanent seat at the horse-shoe table. India is vying for a non-permanent seat at the UN Security Council for the 2028–29 term, elections for which will be held in June next year.
As he addressed world leaders gathered in the iconic UNGA hall, Guterres voiced concern over deepened geopolitical divides, intensified inequalities and frayed trust.
“The climate crisis went from distant warning to daily reality. And artificial intelligence moved at a speed that has blindsided even those who created it. These are not separate crises. They are chapters of the same story. The story of power. Who has it. Who is denied it. How it is used. And how it is changing,” he said.
Guterres said that at a time when new centres of economic, political and technological influence have emerged, and humans are increasingly handing over power to machines, “our institutions and systems of global governance continue to reflect the power realities and interests of a largely bygone age.”
“That is the defining challenge before us. At the very moment when humanity faces an unprecedented convergence of threats, our mechanisms for collective action are under growing strain,” he said.
Guterres emphasised that “we are clearly moving towards a multipolar world. And that movement is irreversible,” but cautioned that there are different ways that multipolarity can take shape.
“One possibility is a world of fragmentation and transactionalism. A world of rising tensions and deepening mistrust. Of fractured markets and weakened institutions. Of shrinking cooperation and zero-sum calculations. In many respects, that is the trajectory we are on today,” he said.
He also showed the international community the possibility of another path that goes towards networked multipolarity.
“A world built on interdependence – and sustained by a dense web of economic, political, social and technological connections. A world in which multiple centres of influence coexist within a common framework of international law and shared rules,” he said.
Guterres said such a world could help avoid hegemonic tendencies and what he described as the “Great Fracture: The division of the world into two rival blocs with separate economic, technological and security systems.”
“A networked world recognises that no power can solve today’s challenges alone. Of course, competition will remain a permanent feature of international relations. But competition does not mean confrontation,” he said.
Noting that healthy competition can drive innovation, strengthen resilience, and expand opportunity, Guterres said building such a future begins with a recognition, especially by superpowers that their power isn’t so super.
“Their power has limits. The events of recent years have made that unmistakably clear. Military power alone cannot secure peace. Economic power alone cannot command stability. And technological power alone cannot guarantee security.
“A networked multipolar world can create the conditions for more balanced and representative global problem-solving. But it requires a multilateral system centred in the UN that is balanced and representative. Strong, effective institutions that reflect the realities and the progressively changing relative weight of countries and economies in today’s world – not the power arrangements of 80 years ago,” he said.
