Mr President of the General Assembly, Senhor Presidente da República Portuguesa, Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen,
This is a solemn moment. I find myself experiencing a whirlwind of emotions and thoughts.
I am deeply honoured and grateful for the trust you have placed in me to serve as the Secretary-General of the United Nations for a second term.
Serving the United Nations is an immense privilege and a most noble duty.
I am also very grateful to Portugal for having nominated me again. I am a committed multilateralist but I am also a proud Portuguese. All I have learnt and become has been forged by working together with the people of my country. It is a great honour for me to have with us today the President of Portugal.
I am acutely aware of the immense responsibilities you are entrusting me [with] at such a critical moment in history — dare I say, at the cusp of a new era.
We are truly at a crossroads, with consequential choices before us. Paradigms are shifting. Old orthodoxies are being flipped.
We are writing our own history with the choices we make right now. It can go either way: breakdown and perpetual crisis or breakthrough and prospect of a greener, safer and better future for all. There are reasons to be hopeful.
The pandemic has revealed our shared vulnerability, our inter-connectedness and the absolute need for collective action. We feel a new momentum everywhere for an unequivocal commitment to come together to chart a course towards a better future.
I pledge to you that I will do everything in my power during my second term in office to contribute to the positive, breakthrough scenario.
No doubt, the tasks ahead of us are colossal. But I am confident that we can rise to the challenges we face for three reasons.
First, because of the incredible commitment I have witnessed time and again of United Nations colleagues serving tirelessly around the world, ensuring seamless business continuity during the challenging circumstances of the pandemic. I know this has not been easy for most of our colleagues.
Let me start by paying wholehearted tribute to them, their hard work, often in dangerous or stressful situations, and often away from their families and loved ones.
Their sacrifice for the common cause is remarkable. Let me also in particular remember and honour United Nations personnel, women and men, who lost their lives in the line of duty.
My colleagues are indeed the greatest asset we have, and we need to cherish and recognise this with deep gratitude and appreciation. We are in this together — with unity in purpose and solidarity.
Second, despite all the differences and divides, we have shown that we can come together to agree on shared goals and solve common problems. We have managed together to embark on an important reform process in the development, management, as well as peace and security areas of the UN. The reform endeavours have equipped us better to tackle the current crisis.
Yet it is also clear that continuous improvement needs to be the norm.
We need to consolidate the current reforms, build on their results and continue to develop new methods of work to be able to deliver to the world. I have talked about a United Nations 2.0, and it is clear to me that we need to accelerate transformation through a quintet of change in the years ahead: better data, analysis and communications; innovation and digital transformation; strategic foresight; stronger performance and results orientation; and a work culture that reduces unnecessary bureaucracy, simplifies and fosters a work of collaboration.
Equally, we need to strive for a much more aligned and integrated UN that works seamlessly across the various pillars of the Organization.
A UN that is transparent and accountable.
A UN that makes available more effectively its remarkable data set, analytical capacity, policy and normative developments, as well as its operational engagement — in a spirit of creativity and openness. I count on your full support for this much needed next iteration of the UN.
Third, in the UN75 Declaration you have given me a mandate to report back to you on how to advance our Common Agenda to respond better to current and future challenges.
You did this in the realisation that something fundamental has to change. And indeed I sense there is a momentum for some of the most profound transformations to take place. Let us seize it — together.
In a world that has changed so much, the promise, principles and values of the UN Charter endure but we also have to work together in entirely new ways to keep its promises alive.
The UN is an intergovernmental organization, and it harnesses the unique collective power of states in a world where they remain the publicly accountable actors with the responsibility to shape our policy options.
But in a world where the levers of change lie in many hands, the UN, and the states and people it serves, can only benefit from bringing others to the table.
Civil society, cities, the private sector and young people, to name a few, are critical voices that must be heard in a context of true gender equality.
They have essential capabilities and insights that we have to tap if we are to forge a path towards a more peaceful and prosperous future.
At its heart, this is about a growing number and diversity of actors working together to deliver global public goods, with the UN at the centre playing a catalytic and convening role to initiate more innovation, more inclusion, more cooperation and more foresight.
This is an incremental, organic process, one that repurposes and innovates the old structures and institutions while being open to and embracing new forms of collaboration.
But equity needs to start now: vaccines need to be available for everyone everywhere and we must create the conditions for sustainable and inclusive recovery both in the developed and developing world. And there is still a long way to go.
All of this will, however, only be possible if we manage to overcome the current trust deficit that has a corrosive effect on societies and between countries.
In particular, we need to do everything we can to overcome current geostrategic divides and dysfunctional power relations.
There are too many asymmetries and paradoxes. They need to be addressed head-on.
We also need to be aware of how power plays out in today’s world when it comes to the distribution of resources and technology.
Sophocles famously said that trust dies but mistrust blossoms. We have the power to turn that idea around, resurrecting trust and combatting mistrust.
What we are living through today in terms of mistrust is, I hope, an aberration but it cannot become the norm.
The norm is, and will continue to be, the foundations on which the UN Charter was built, an ultimate belief in multilateralism, and the aspirations of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Norms that preserve human dignity must prevail — for our survival and development.
They are not just about words, but about human life. Based in law and rooted in respect for humanity, they provide a vanguard against chaos and anarchy, and a check on unhealthy dynamics of power.
I will give it my all to ensure the blossoming of trust between and among nations, large and small, to build bridges and to engage relentlessly in confidence building.
I will also seek to inspire hope that we can turn things around, that the impossible might be possible.
The attitude is never to give up. This is not idealistic or utopian but grounded in knowledge of history when big transformations occurred and guided by the fundamental belief in the inherent goodness of people.
That breakthroughs are possible when we expect it the least and against all odds. That is my unwavering commitment.
As regards my own role, throughout my whole life I have always seen public office, first and foremost, as a service, and I mean it in its most original form of serving people and the planet.
Let me repeat what I have said on previous occasions.
I must be at the service of all Member States equally and with no agenda but the one anchored in the Charter of the United Nations.
We can only meet today’s complex challenges successfully with a humble approach — one in which the Secretary-General alone neither has all the answers; nor seeks to impose his views; one in which the Secretary-General supports Member States and relevant stakeholders to lead the necessary changes and makes his good offices available, engaging tirelessly, making full use of the unique convening role of the UN, and working as a mediator, a bridge and trust-builder and an honest broker to help find solutions that benefit everyone involved.
The Secretary-General must feel every day the acute responsibilities of the office, guided by the Charter and making human dignity and peace with nature, including for future generations, the core of our common work and endeavour.
It is my intention to serve with humility, and as I said in my Vision Statement, in the spirit of building trust and inspiring hope. This is our common mission. It is in this spirit that I look forward to continued close cooperation with all of you in the years ahead.
Preserving human dignity calls upon us to draw upon our diversity and richness to imagine larger freedoms that can only be secured through common action.
I thank you.
