Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa spoke to journalists at the UN headquarters in New York, after meeting with António Guterres.
According to the head of state, António Guterres has shown “great consistency” since taking on the role of UN Secretary General in early 2017, “defining certain objectives as priorities”, such as climate and sustainable development goals, and “he persisted in these aims, in these objectives”.
‘In between there were very different problems, perhaps the most recent of which were the pandemic and the war [na Ucrânia]but before that the difficulty of understanding what existed between great powers at crucial moments,” he emphasized.
According to the President of the Republic, faced with “a systematic paralysis of the Security Council”, there is now “an increasingly important role for the General Assembly, but the Secretary General is a central figure”.
“Don’t give up on goals, don’t give up on objectives. At the same time, she maintains dialogue with those who do not talk to each other, but who manage to do so, with the Secretary General with whom they do speak. And that is why he is taking small steps even in difficult areas,” he added.
The President of the Republic arrived in New York on Sunday evening to participate in the 78th session of the UN General Assembly.
The general debate between the heads of state and government of the 193 UN member states starts on Tuesday, the day on which Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa will speak.
The theme of the 78th session of the UN General Assembly is “Rebuilding trust and reviving global solidarity: accelerating action on the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) towards peace, prosperity, progress and sustainability for all people “.
Source: DN
