Following are UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ remarks at the eighteenth BRICS [Brazil, Russian Federation, India, China, South Africa] Summit, in New Delhi today:
Today's economic, demographic and geopolitical realities are not those of 1945. Our institutional structures must reflect it. Countries represented at this Summit speak to that changing reality. We are increasingly moving towards a multipolar world.
Multipolarity helps bring balance and equity to global systems and institutions. But, this requires reforming global multilateral institutions — including the UN Security Council and the Bretton Woods system — to reflect the world of today.
As your Summit’s theme rightly frames it, we must build for resilience, innovation, cooperation and sustainability. This is essential for shaping inclusive global growth.
First, through financing. Through the Sevilla Commitment, countries pledged to mobilize greater domestic resources, but developing countries need massive international support to be able to implement the Sustainable Development Goals.
The international financial architecture must be reformed, giving higher participation and influence to developing countries in the decision-making processes in order to guarantee more equity and justice, and to address historical injustices.
Multilateral development banks must also become bigger, better and bolder, with a new business model to mobilize massive private investment and expand concessional funding to developing countries. And we must work towards a development-oriented debt architecture and effective debt-relief mechanisms.
Second, through technology. Artificial intelligence (AI) could compress decades of development into years, but its power sits with a few companies in a few countries. Unchecked, the AI divide will widen every other divide — in income, in opportunity, in security and in sovereignty.
Your support was critical in establishing the Independent International Scientific Panel on AI and the Global Dialogue on AI Governance in the UN — with every nation at the table.
Your countries bring talent, ideas and scale to the age of AI. But, in many developing countries, what many still lack are the building blocks: computing power, data, skills. The global network for AI capacity building and the global fund for AI aim to close that gap — and I ask you to fully back them.
Third, through climate justice. Scorching heat, devastating glacier melt, raging wildfires and devastating floods are all a preview. A supersized El Niño will only make matters worse. Scientists confirm we will soon breach the 1.5°C limit. We must make this overshoot as small and short as possible.
We need an overshoot of ambition: accelerating the transition from fossil fuels to renewables, slashing methane, protecting nature.
The principle of “Common But Differentiated Responsibilities” applies — but every country must do more. By over-delivering on national climate plans; scaling up renewables, grids and storage; and driving investment towards developing countries.
Climate justice also means protecting people from escalating impacts. Developed countries must keep their promises: $300 billion a year, adaptation finance tripled, far greater resources for loss and damage and early warnings for every person. Critical minerals must be responsibly managed, adding value and jobs in producing countries and communities — enough plundering.
Fourth, through peace. From Gaza, to the broader crisis in the Middle East, to Ukraine, Sudan and beyond, our world needs peace.
Across the board, States must respect their obligations under the UN Charter and international law — including the principles of sovereign equality, respect for territorial integrity and political independence of States, international navigational rights and freedoms, peaceful settlement of disputes, international humanitarian law and international human-rights law.
As we move irreversibly to a multipolar world, all countries must work to strengthen and safeguard a multilateral system that delivers for all with the United Nations at its centre. I look forward to working with all of you to make that future a reality.