Guterres to run for second term as UN Secretary General

United Nations | Xinhua | United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will serve a second five-year term, if that’s what member states want, his spokesman said on Monday.

Stephane Dujarric, the chief spokesman for the secretary-general, said that the 75th UN General Assembly president, Volkan Bozkir, on Friday asked Guterres “about his intentions regarding a second mandate.”

“The secretary-general conveyed to him today (Monday) that he is available to serve a second term as secretary-general of the United Nations if that would be the will of the member states,” Dujarric said. “The secretary-general also addressed a letter of similar content to the president of the Security Council” for January, Ambassador Tarek Ladeb, the permanent representative of Tunisia.

The spokesman said Guterres also talked about his decision to the five, veto-wielding, permanent members of the Security Council, Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States, the heads of regional and political groups over the weekend, “to make sure everybody had the same information.”

Dujarric said Guterres spent time on his Christmas holiday in Portugal speaking to family members regarding running for a second term.

Guterres became the ninth secretary-general of the United Nations on Jan. 1, 2017, succeeding Ban Ki-moon.

Guterres served as High Commissioner of the UN Refugee Agency from June 2005 to December 2015 and prime minister of Portugal from 1995 to 2002.

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Xinhua