UN Secretary General António Guterres: Is multilateralism dead?
The Interview
BBC
4.3 • 537 Ratings
🗓️ 3 September 2020
⏱️ 23 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The annual UN General Assembly gets underway this month in New York and this year it will be like no previous one. The coronavirus pandemic means the summit will be held virtually. The medical, social and economic impact of Covid-19 has not only brought much suffering, it is also reshaping the world. HARDtalk’s Zeinab Badawi speaks to the Secretary General of the UN, António Guterres. He believes the pandemic is unleashing a tsunami of scapegoating, hate and xenophobia. As the UN marks its 75th anniversary, is it equipped to deal with these unprecedented global challenges?
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Welcome to Hard Talk on the BBC World Service with me, Zayna Badawi. |
| 0:05.7 | The UN General Assembly gets underway this month and it will be one like no other. |
| 0:11.0 | It will be mostly a virtual summit because of COVID-19. |
| 0:15.0 | My guest is the Secretary General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres. |
| 0:19.5 | In a year that the UN marks its 75th anniversary, |
| 0:23.1 | why does he believe the pandemic is unleashing a tsunami of hate |
| 0:27.4 | and is also undermining multilateralism? |
| 0:31.3 | And does he really have the power to do anything about this? |
| 0:36.0 | Secretary General Antonio Guterre is at UN headquarters in New York. |
| 0:40.0 | Welcome to Hard Talk. |
| 0:41.5 | In May, you said that COVID-19 has unleashed a tsunami of hate, scapegoating and scaremongering. |
| 0:49.5 | Why do you think it's brought out the worst in humanity? |
| 0:52.3 | Well, first of all, it's a pleasure to be back |
| 0:54.2 | in our talk. I think COVID-19 has demonstrated the enormous fragility of our world. We are |
| 1:00.7 | on our knees with a microscopic virus. And in my opinion, the main reason is because countries |
| 1:06.3 | were not able to come together and face COVID-19 in a close coordination. We have seen each country going its own way. |
| 1:13.6 | The World Health Organization can advise, but they cannot force countries to do anything. |
| 1:18.6 | And so we see the virus moving from east to west, now from north to south. |
| 1:23.6 | It can come back with a second wave. |
| 1:25.6 | And the lack of effective coordination among member states, |
| 1:29.8 | the fact that we are so divided with the fragility that we have made this a devastating disease |
| 1:35.8 | with devastating economic and social impacts. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.