This year’s United Nations General Assembly High-level Week took place from 18-28 September in New York. It was the last meeting for Secretary-General Antonio Guterres (77), who has served in the post since 2017. He has many times reminded the 193 member states of their duties to act and find concrete solutions, not only talk, analyse and appoint committees and commissions. His clear words about the UN’s core normative roles, financing, administration and concrete actions will be remembered, especially now when the UN stands at a crossroads, needing major reorganisation and renewal, and clearer prioritisation of its ore roles.

Several participants expressed their opinions on what kind of Secretary-General the UN now needs to take office in January 2027, among them Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre from Norway, the land of the first UN Secretary-General, Trygve Lie, who held the high post from 1946-1952, not always in smooth waters, resigning early in his second-term extension. He was, among other things, working for a ceasefire in the fighting in Kashmir in 1946, the Soviet Union pulling out of Iran, and siding with South Korea, supported by the USA, in the Korean War (1950-53).

Also today, there are many difficult tasks for the UN to solve, but to be effective, the UN must get back to its intended core roles of preventing and solving conflicts and wars. The Norwegian PM said that he hopes the UN can this time find a Secretary-General who will be more a ‘General’ than a ‘Secretary’, not being afraid of speaking his or her mind to all member states regardless of their prominence and power in the international world, realising, too, that the UN’s power lies in the sum and will of its member states.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif headed the Pakistan delegation to this year’s UN General Assembly High-level Week, drawing attention to peace-brokering and peacekeeping efforts in several difficult wars and conflicts,........

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