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UN chief plans to hold annual meetings with heads of other organizations

Antonio Guterres expressed confidence that regional organizations resolve conflicts better than a global organization

MOSCOW, June 28. /TASS/. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he will hold annual meetings with secretaries-general of other international and regional organizations to discuss joint work.

"All these organizations are fundamental for us, and we have a forum every year. With the COVID, this got complicated. We are going to restart now. Every year I would invite the secretaries-general of all the organizations for a meeting and I intend to do it again soon <…> [to] discuss how better we can work together," he said in an interview with TASS First Deputy Director General Mikhail Gusman, commenting on other international organizations, such as the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, BRICS and the African Union.

In his opinion, "problems are [getting] more complex; situations are more difficult."

"I am more and more convinced <…> that the capacity of regional organizations is essential to solve the problems, because they know better," he said. "If there is a conflict between two countries, the region knows much better the details of the conflict than a global organization."

That is why the UN is betting more and more on cooperation with regional organizations, Guterres added.