UNITED NATIONS (Sputnik) — Guterres, former prime minister of Portugal whose candidacy was approved by the UN General Assembly on Thursday, will take up his duties to succeed Ban Ki-moon on January 1, 2017.
"I will be delighted to do everything I can to support confidence and trust to be increased among states in general, and of course obviously the United States and Russia are two absolutely central countries in today's world," Guterres said.
Guterres told Sputnik that he expected Russia and the United States to show strong commitment to ensure peace and to make effective efforts to fight terrorism.
“What I expect from the United States is the same I expect from the Russian Federation – a strong commitment to make sure that we will be able to succeed in creating the conditions for peace to become our global first priority and with peace to allow for also much more effectiveness in the capacity to defeat terrorism that is today a global threat to our populations,” he said.
Pointing out that the UN secretary-general is "not the leader of the world" but a chief administrator, Guterres nonetheless affirmed his intention to facilitate reconciliation between Moscow and Washington.
"I will always strongly encourage these two countries to come together, because I am absolutely sure if these two countries come together, they will have an enormous capacity to mobilize others to make sure the contradictions we are still facing can be overcome," he stressed.
"I will do everything I can to cooperate with member states, to offer my good offices in order to create the conditions for people to come together and to understand that the conflicts we are having today are conflicts in which everybody is losing, nobody is winning. And it is in the interests of everybody to stop them," Guterres added.
Guterres Welcomes New Syria Talks, Wants to Persuade Stakeholders
"I was very happy to notice that the negotiations about Syria are starting again," Guterres said of the meeting in Lausanne scheduled for Saturday, October 15.
Russia, the United States and regional stakeholders including Saudi Arabia and Turkey are expected in the Swiss city for the negotiations.
"I don't have a [Syrian crisis settlement] plan for the moment. I am not yet secretary general first of all. Second, the key question here is to bring together those that have a central role in that conflict, either because they are parties of the conflict or because they have influence on the parties of the conflict," Guterres said.
"What I will try to do is everything I can to make all countries involved understand that this is a war in which everybody is losing," he added, noting the threat the Syrian crisis poses to regional stability and the spread of global terrorism.
