UN Chief Guterres calls for global efforts to repair broken trust

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UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned that the world is facing a "trust deficit disorder" and urged the international community to repair broken trust.

Guterres made the remarks during his speech at the opening session of the 73rd Session of the UN General Assembly in New York, where world leaders are gathering to attend high-level meetings on Tuesday.

The world order is "increasingly chaotic," trust is at a breaking point and shifts in the balance of power may increase the risk of confrontation, he warned.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres delivers the opening address at the 73rd session of the UN General Assembly at UN headquarters in New York, September 25, 2018. /Reuters Photo

As US President Donald Trump prepared to tout protection of US sovereignty at the annual UN gathering of world leaders, Guterres told the 193-member UN General Assembly that multilateralism is under fire when it is needed most.

"Individual leaders have the duty to advance the well-being of their people," Guterres said. "But it runs deeper... As guardians of the common good, we also have a duty to promote and support a reformed, reinvigorated and strengthened multilateral system."

He called for a renewed commitment to a rules-based order with the UN at its center and warned against spreading "politics of pessimism."

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres addresses the opening of the 73rd session of the UN General Assembly at the UN headquarters in New York, September 25, 2018. /Reuters Photo‍

"Those who see their neighbors as dangerous may cause a threat where there was none. Those who close their borders to regular migration only fuel the work of traffickers," Guterres said. "And those who ignore human rights in combating terrorism tend to breed the very extremism they are trying to end."

"There is no way forward but collective, common-sense action for the common good," he said.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres delivers the opening address at the 73rd session of the UN General Assembly at the UN headquarters in New York, September 25, 2018. /Reuters Photo

Drawing a list of global problems, Guterres acknowledged that peace efforts were failing and that respect for international humanitarian norms was unraveling.

"There is outrage at our inability to end the wars in Syria, Yemen and elsewhere," he said.

"The Rohingya people remain exiled, traumatized and in misery, still yearning for safety and justice."

The two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has become "more and more distant" while the nuclear threat "has not eased."

Guterres zeroed in on climate change as an urgent priority, warning that if no concrete action is taken in the next two years to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the world risks facing runaway climate change.

"Climate change is moving faster than we are－and its speed has provoked a sonic boom SOS across our world," he said.

About 130 world leaders are attending this year's annual session, including Trump and Iranian leader Hassan Rouhani, who also spoke on Tuesday. France's Emmanuel Macron, a champion of multilateralism, also had his turn at the podium on Tuesday.

(With input from Reuters and AFP)