U.N. chief says world is ‘gridlocked in colossal global dysfunction’

NEW YORK — U.N. Secretary General António Guterres said Tuesday that a breakdown in global cooperation amid Russia’s war in Ukraine is exacerbating the top threats to human existence, including food insecurity and climate change.

Guterres said problems such as poverty, indebtedness, online hate and harassment, and a loss of biodiversity are resulting from the international system’s failure to function.

“Divides are growing deeper. Inequalities are growing wider. Challenges are spreading farther,” Guterres said at the annual gathering of leaders at the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

“We have a duty to act. And yet we are gridlocked in colossal global dysfunction,” he said.

The diagnosis was echoed by some of the more than 100 leaders attending the week-long event, but very little consensus emerged over how to bridge divides among nations deeply conflicted about how to respond to the war in Ukraine.

The United States seeks to pressure and isolate Russia on the world stage for the violence and destruction that have taken place in Ukraine since Moscow’s forces invaded on Feb. 24. The fighting has resulted in tens of thousands of casualties and millions of refugees as Russia has captured and then retreated from Ukrainian territory in the south and east.

Many developing countries in Africa and Latin America, meanwhile, resent the global push to condemn Moscow while they bear the brunt of rising food and energy prices stemming from the war.

Washington is trying to cater to those concerns this week by prioritizing lowering global food costs and gesturing toward reforming the U.N. Security Council — a longtime goal of developing countries that view the institution as outdated and unrepresentative.

“For the West, the goal of this week is to win the hearts and minds of non-Western leaders,” said Richard Gowan, a U.N. expert at the International Crisis Group.

In theory, the U.N. gathering provides an ideal platform for the West to advance its agenda following the decisions by Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping not to attend.

But many countries that had been resistant to condemning Russia remained so during the first day of speeches.

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, the first head of state to speak, remained neutral on the conflict, instructing both sides that a solution “will only be achieved through negotiation and dialogue.”

Macky Sall, the president of Senegal, also called for de-escalation and negotiation in an address that did not use the word “Russia” once.

Some criticism of Moscow came from the president of Chile, Gabriel Boric, who objected to Russia’s aggression toward Ukraine and also criticized the U.S. trade war with China for negatively affecting the world economy, a jab seen as providing a balanced perspective between Moscow and Washington.

“You have a lot of countries that were once willing to criticize Russia earlier in the year but have developed Ukraine fatigue and are trying to stay out of the war,” Gowan said.

That is especially true of nations that have political and military ties with Russia or are facing a particularly tough economic squeeze.

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