Antonio Guterres
UN Secretary General opens Munich Security Conference
United Nations (UN) Secretary-General António Guterres speaks during a visit to the UN office in the Kenyan capital Nairobi. photo
© Khalil Senosi/AP/dpa
Around 50 heads of state and government and 100 ministers from all over the world are expected at the Munich Security Conference in mid-February. Conference leader Heusgen gives the first details of the program.
The conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East would play a major role at the conference from February 16th to 18th. “But we also have the right to take care of the global order as a whole. That’s why the conference should be opened by UN Secretary General Guterres.”
That’s what Guterres is all about
For him, the conference is about the question: “How do we ensure that the world does not fall apart further due to all these crises, but that we continue to give multilateralism a chance on the basis of the Charter of the United Nations and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights “, said Heusgen, who was foreign policy advisor to Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) for many years and later Germany’s permanent representative to the United Nations. “With all the crises, we ask: Where is the silver lining on the horizon?”
Guterres had already opened the security conference in 2022. In recent months, he had sharply criticized the Israeli military operation against the terrorist organization Hamas in the Gaza Strip because of what he saw as the unacceptably high number of civilian deaths and the dramatic humanitarian consequences and had vehemently advocated for a ceasefire. But criticism from Israel of his administration is no less harsh. In December, then-Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen called Guterres’ term in office a “threat to world peace.”
Heusgen has not yet revealed who is coming to Munich from Israel. “Israel was very broadly invited, and we are pleased to have received a number of high-level commitments,” he told the dpa.
“It is also noteworthy that almost all other countries in the region are prominently represented.” Heusgen said he was expecting the heads of government from Lebanon, Qatar, Iraq and Kuwait as well as the foreign ministers of Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Oman at the conference. The government of Yemen will also be prominently represented. A total of 50 heads of state and government as well as around 100 ministers are expected at the conference in the Hotel Bayerischer Hof.