UN Secretary-General Guterres criticized the global distribution of power in clear terms at the BRICS summit. It is dysfunctional, unjust and outdated. He called for reforms of the major multilateral institutions.
At the BRICS summit, UN Secretary-General António Guterres criticized the international distribution of power as outdated. The current global structures reflect yesterday’s world, Guterres said in Johannesburg.
Most of them were created after the Second World War, says Guterres, referring to international bodies such as the UN Security Council, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. At that time, many African countries were still ruled by colonial powers.
“Multipolar world is a positive thing”
In order for multilateral institutions to remain universal, however, they would have to be reformed. A redesign of “today’s outdated, dysfunctional and unfair global financial architecture” is essential, warned the UN Secretary-General. This requires the “courage to compromise and to reform”. A strengthened and reformed multilateral architecture based on the UN Charter is “urgently needed,” said Guterres.
“We’re moving towards a multipolar world and that’s a positive thing,” he added. He also called for full respect for international law and human rights.
It is a grave injustice that African countries pay on average four times more for loans than the US and eight times more than the richest European countries, Guterres said, calling for the development of an effective debt repayment mechanism.
Ramaphosa: financial institutions reform
At the beginning of the meeting, South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa called for a “fundamental reform of global financial institutions”. These should be able to react more agilely to the challenges of developing countries. The BRICS countries are committed to fairer world trade.
Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva had emphasized that the BRICS group was primarily concerned with “better organization of the Global South”. “The BRICS are not opposed to the G7, the G20 or anyone else,” Lula wrote on Platform X, formerly Twitter. “We want to organize ourselves as the Global South. We are important in the global debate and sit at the negotiating table on an equal footing with the European Union and the United States.”
At their summit in Johannesburg, the BRICS decided to expand initially to include the six countries Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
The aim of the alliance is to form a counterweight to the geopolitical and economic dominance of the West. The BRICS countries also want to reduce their dependency on the US dollar as the global reserve currency.