Guterres insists on predictable and adequate funding for peace missions

“ ANDprepared star means constantly investing in people and peace-keeping instruments – including more mobile missions, military and police capabilities of the future and means to fight drones,” Guterres said, stressing that the nature of conflicts is changing rapidly.

Speaking in the Security Council debate on UN peacekeeping operations, António Guterres argued that peace-keeping must remain a political tool that supports, and does not replace, political solutions.

The former Portuguese Prime Minister warned that conflicts are becoming increasingly complex, with fewer peace agreements, increased attacks on civilians and peace forces, emerging technologies such as drones and misinformation driven by artificial intelligence, as well as increasingly scarce resources.

“Often, our mandates did not follow this change,” he recalled, asking for a complete reformulation of operations.

Guterres outlined five priorities: putting peace consolidation first, building stronger partnerships with host states, adapting mandates to current realities, empowering peace operations with adequate resources and technology, and strengthening cooperation with regional organizations.

“ In various places, peacekeepers still do not have access to technologies that any modern force would consider basic. This undermines their ability to fulfill their mandates,” he said.

The UN Head emphasized that “we cannot keep the peace where there is no peace to maintain” and called for the Security Council’s unity in conflict prevention and support for political solutions.

Insisting that “peace cannot be imported”, Guterres, who will leave the UN leadership at the end of the year, called for a renewed investment in peace, accountability and collective action to create lasting paths for peace.

“In the shadow of war, people still look at the ‘blue hoodies’ and trust them. Let us be worthy of this trust every day. We invest in peace. Let us be responsible and modernise ourselves, becoming more effective and economic. United, let us support those who maintain it. And together, let us tread new paths to peace”, he concluded.

In the same debate, Panamanian Foreign Minister Javier Martínez Vásquez stressed that “the success of a peace operation is not measured by the time a mission remains on site, but by the time peace can last after the mission has been withdrawn”.

Preventive diplomacy, mediation, political dialogue and trust building remain the most powerful tools the Organization has, he added.

Chinese diplomat Fu Cong, on the other hand, indicated that liquidity remains a bottleneck that limits peacekeeping missions, emphasizing the need to further strengthen communication between the Council, the Secretariat, host countries and countries contributing troops in order to improve the links between mandates, implementation of operations and guarantees of resources.