Gentium Law has issued the following statement today 5th October 2016:
Gentium Law Group is delighted to congratulate Antonio Guterres, the former Prime Minister of Portugal, on his nomination today by the UN Security Council to be the next UN Secretary General. This nomination is subject to approval by the UN General Assembly, but we are sure this approval will follow in light of the universally high regard in which Mr Guterres is held.
Mr Guterres was always an eminently qualified candidate to be Secretary General, and we are confident that he will be superlative in his performance of what is often described as the world’s most difficult job. Mr Guterres is known to us personally, and exhibits exactly the right combination of diplomacy, experience, statesmanship and wisdom to occupy such an important role at this fundamental juncture in international relations and geopolitics. We are delighted that the selection process for the United Nations Secretary General in 2016 has been so transparent and for the first time has rendered the candidates accountable to the public for their statements and positions. We believe this process is vastly better than anything that has occurred before, and will lead to a new era in the efficient and effective administration of the United Nations and all of its specialist agencies.
We believe that the new Secretary General will contribute from his very first day in office to the most fundamental reforms that the United Nations so sorely needs in order to be faithful to its original charter. He and his new team will face many challenges. But we are certain that they will do everything they can to contribute to peace and stability, and resolution of the most fundamental problems of international security policy, across the globe. The debates between the candidates and their respective platforms have given the new Secretary General a great luxury that his predecessors were never able to benefit from. In the competition between the candidates’ ideas, some of the very best policies and reforms have been debated, and the strongest ideas for renewal and development of the United Nations have emerged from those debates. All those who have participated in these debates ought to be congratulated for their contributions, which at their highest reveal a new era of thinking about the new direction the United Nations needs to take in order to meet the challenges of the twenty-first century.
We have worked closely with Vuk Jeremić, the former Serbian Foreign Minister and former President of the UN General Assembly, throughout this remarkable campaign and we are delighted with his exceptionally impressive result. We have worked intensely with Mr Jeremić for well over a year in striving to achieve this outcome. We have the highest regard for him, and we have found him to be the most extraordinary leader and an inspirational fount of ideas and direction. He is surely one of the most decent and sophisticated diplomats of his generation, having achieved such broad and enthusiastic support at so youthful an age. We are excited to watch him further develop his formidable career in public service, as we believe he is one of the most decent, humane, honest and talented of statesmen in a new and emerging political generation and we would like to offer him our wholehearted support in these endeavours. We will remain his steadfast supporters throughout the future.