UN chief Guterres cites India-EU trade agreement as he underlines need to support ‘multi-polarity’

UN chief Guterres advocates for multi-polarity, highlighting the India-EU trade agreement's significance in global cooperation and stability.

UN chief Antonio Guterres cited the FTA between India and the EU as he underlined the need to support “multi-polarity”, emphasising that global problems will not be solved by "one power calling the shots", in a veiled reference to the U.S. and China.

"In the present moment, it is clear that the most powerful country in the world is the US. Obviously, we see — and many see in relation to the future — the idea that there are two poles, one centred in the U.S. and one centred in China,” Mr. Guterres said Thursday (January 30, 2026) at a press conference outlining his priorities for 2026.

He added that “if we want a stable world, if we want a world in which peace can be sustained, in which development can be generalised, and in which, in the end, our values will prevail, we need to support multi-polarity.

"We need to support a dense set of relations among different countries. And I see with a lot of positive expectations, recent trade agreements: You had the EU with Mercosur. You had EU with Indonesia. EU with India," Secretary General Guterres said.

"You had Canada with China. You had UK with China. So, it is this network in trade, this network in technology, this network in international cooperation among a progressively larger group of countries and entities in a true multipolar world that, in my opinion, can create the conditions for strong multilateral institutions and for a world in which the values that are the values of the Charter of United Nations can prevail,” Mr. Guterres said.

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