UN chief urges more development in conflicts prevention

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres emphasized the importance of development in conflicts prevention during his speech at the 53rd Munich Security Conference (MSC) on Saturday.

He said countries, institutions and civil societies should be made stronger and more resilient, so that the tendency of being involved in conflicts can be diminished.

The UN chief pointed out that the increasingly inter-linked megatrends of the world, ranging from climate changes, excessive population growth to food security risks, have led to dramatical competition for resources, which increases likelihood of conflicts of mankind.

As for globalization, Guterres said he still regarded it as an incredible generator of world's prosperity, but admitted increasing inequality as some parts of the world lag behind.

He cited a recent argument by the Fortune magazine that just eight individuals own as much wealth as the poorest half of the world's population, saying that too excessive inequality is the generator of instability and risks, and a blow to people's confidence about political establishments and international organizations.

Guterres took the unemployment among the young as a typical demonstration of such inequality, saying it posed a major threat to the global security as it is yet "perfect" for the recruitment of terrorist organizations.

The UN Secretary-General called for more understanding and reforms instead of blaming to help restore people's confidence about government and multilateral institutions in some communities of the world.

As the most significant multilateral organization, UN has been deepening its reforms and committed to fulfilling sustainable development goals, said Guterres.

He added the most important instruments of UN are to support countries to generate their own resource.

He also appreciated particularly China's great achievements in poverty reduction, saying "Let's not forget one thing, the biggest contribution for dramatical reduction of poverty in last decade was China."

Source: Xinhua