Hopeful India's G20 presidency will drive transformative changes: UN chief

Divisions are growing, tensions are flaring up and trust is eroding, which together raise the spectre of fragmentation and ultimately confrontation, he said

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Friday hoped India's presidency of G20 will help drive the transformative changes that the world desperately needs as he warned against the catastrophe of growing divisions and eroding trust in a fragmented world.

Addressing a press conference here ahead of the G20 Summit, he said the phrase of 'One Earth, One Family and One Future' adopted by India as G20 theme inspired by the Mahaupanishad finds profound resonance in today's world.

"If we are indeed one global family, today we resemble rather a dysfunctional one," he added.

Guterres said, "I hope that India's presidency of G20 will help drive the kind of transformative change that our world desperately needs, in line with the repeated commitments of India to act on behalf of the Global South and its determination to pursue developmental agenda."

"Divisions are growing, tensions are flaring up and trust is eroding, which together raise the spectre of fragmentation and ultimately confrontation. This fracturing world would be deeply concerning in the best of times, but in our times it spells catastrophe," he added.

The UN chief said the world is in a different moment of transition and that its future is multipolar but our multilateral institutions reflect a bygone age.

"The global financial architecture is outdated, outdated and unfair. It requires deep structural reforms and the same can be said about UN Security Council.

"We need to reflect 21st century, that is why I have been advocating for bold steps to make global institutions truly universal and representative of today's realities and more responsive to the needs of developing economies," he said.

Guterres cautioned that there was no time to lose as wars and conflicts were multiplying and new technologies are raising red flags.

"Poverty, hunger and inequality are growing but global solidarity is missing. We must come together for common good," he said, while urging G20 member countries to work together to tackle the challenges as they are in control of the global economy.