Trump and Guterres to lead UN reform discussion in New York
Donald Trump and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will lead a gathering of world leaders in New York today to discuss reforming the United Nations.
Delegates from 120 countries will mull a 10-point US declaration—the overwhelming message of which is efficiency. Key to the reform effort are proposals to consolidate UN resources currently spread across different missions in the same country, as well as handing more power to the secretary-general.
Mr Trump was highly critical of the UN on the campaign trail last year, denouncing it as weak and incompetent and calling for major funding cuts to the organisation, which receives a fifth of its $5.4 billion biennial budget from the US. But while the current reform push may well achieve a more cost-effective UN, they’ve also received support from Guterres, who was installed as UN chief earlier this year.
Get a daily geopolitical forecast. Download The Daily Brief in the App Store.