Media Home
UN Web TV
UN Audiovisual Library
UN PhotoLONDON / UN80 GUTERRES BAERBOCK
Download
There is no media available to download.
Share
STORY: LONDON / UN80 GUTERRES BAERBOCK
TRT: 04:48
SOURCE: UNA UK
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 17 JANUARY 2026, LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM
1. Wide shot, Secretary-General António Guterres walks up to the podium
2. SOUNDBITE (English) António Guterres, Secretary-General, United Nations:
“For eight decades, the General Assembly has been the place the world comes together to help advance peace, promote sustainable development, and safeguard human rights. By its nature, the work of the General Assembly may not always be straightforward or seamless. But it is a mirror of our world, its divisions and its hopes. And it is the stage on which our shared story plays out. Today, we are entering a new chapter of that story.”
3. Wide shot, Guterres at the podium
4. SOUNDBITE (English) António Guterres, Secretary-General, United Nations:
“The conflicts in Gaza, Ukraine and Sudan have been vicious and cruel beyond measure; Artificial intelligence has become ubiquitous almost overnight; And the pandemic poured accelerant on the fires of nationalism — stalling progress on development and climate action. If this period has taught us anything, it is that our challenges are ever more borderless, and ever more interconnected. And the only way to address them is together. And that requires a robust, responsive and well-resourced multilateral system. Yet as we speak, that system is under threat.”
5. Wide shot, Guterres at the podium
6. SOUNDBITE (English) António Guterres, Secretary-General, United Nations:
“Quiet victories of international cooperation — the wars prevented, the famine averted, the vital treaties secured — do not always make the headlines. Yet they are real. And they matter. If we wish to secure more such victories, we must ensure the full respect of international law and defend multilateralism, strengthening it for our times. The world of 2026 is not the world of 1946. As global centres of power shift, we have the potential to build a future that is either more fair — or more unstable.”
7. Wide shot, Guterres at the podium
8. SOUNDBITE (English) António Guterres, Secretary-General, United Nations:
“In this moment when the values of multilateralism are being chipped away, it is up to us — in our capacity as professionals, as voters, and as members of organizations like the UNA-UK — to take a stand. More than ever, the world needs civil society movements that are fearless and persistent — that make it impossible for leaders to look away. The General Assembly which we celebrate today exists because of a simple truth — humanity is strongest when we stand as one.”
9. Wide shot, General Assembly President Annalena Baerbock walks up to the podium
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Annalena Baerbock, President, General Assembly, United Nations:
“We meet in challenging times, but if our predecessors could emerge from devastation with the resolve to chart a better path forward, how can we credibly argue that we are incapable of doing the same? We need to summon the same resolve found by the delegates in this Hall eighty years ago, to form a cross-regional alliance to defend our international rules-based order and the Charter every single day.”
11. Wide shot, Baerbock at the podium
12. SOUNDBITE (English), United Nations:
“I can’t stop thinking, how many blows can an international order, can our United Nations endure? Or can any country truly sleep in peace if we simply accept that more and more Member States, including some Permanent Members of the Security Council, violate the Charter’s core principles? When compromise shifts from mutual accommodation to the slow erosion, or the deliberate dismantling of the very foundations of this institution, it is no longer a compromise but compromising.”
13. Wide shot, Baerbock at the podium
14. SOUNDBITE (English), United Nations:
“At the beginning of 2026 we are not only standing at a crossroads, but history will show whether we find the same courage and determination as our founding fathers and our founding mothers did 80 years ago.”
15. Wide shot, Baerbock walks away
Addressing a landmark event in London today (17 Jan) commemorating the 80th anniversary of the United Nations General Assembly, Secretary-General António Guterres said the multilateral system “is under threat” and called on civil society “to take a stand.”
Speaking at Methodist Central Hall, the very same venue where the first-ever UN General Assembly was held on 10 January 1946, Guterres said, “for eight decades, the General Assembly has been the place the world comes together to help advance peace, promote sustainable development, and safeguard human rights,” and is “the stage on which our shared story plays out.”
He said, “today, we are entering a new chapter of that story.”
The Secretary-General said, “if this period has taught us anything, it is that our challenges are ever more borderless, and ever more interconnected. And the only way to address them is together. And that requires a robust, responsive and well-resourced multilateral system. Yet as we speak, that system is under threat.”
He highlighted the “quiet victories of international cooperation” such as “the wars prevented, the famine averted, the vital treaties secured,” stressing that “if we wish to secure more such victories, we must ensure the full respect of international law and defend multilateralism, strengthening it for our times.”
Guterres said, “the world of 2026 is not the world of 1946. As global centres of power shift, we have the potential to build a future that is either more fair — or more unstable.”
He said, “in this moment when the values of multilateralism are being chipped away, it is up to us — in our capacity as professionals, as voters, and as members of organizations like the UNA-UK — to take a stand. More than ever, the world needs civil society movements that are fearless and persistent — that make it impossible for leaders to look away.”
To conclude, the Secretary-General said, “the General Assembly which we celebrate today exists because of a simple truth — humanity is strongest when we stand as one.”
For her part, the President of the General Assembly, Annalena Baerbock, said, “we meet in challenging times, but if our predecessors could emerge from devastation with the resolve to chart a better path forward, how can we credibly argue that we are incapable of doing the same?”
Baerbock said, “we need to summon the same resolve found by the delegates in this Hall eighty years ago, to form a cross-regional alliance to defend our international rules-based order and the Charter every single day.”
She said, “how many blows can an international order, can our United Nations endure? Or can any country truly sleep in peace if we simply accept that more and more Member States, including some Permanent Members of the Security Council, violate the Charter’s core principles? When compromise shifts from mutual accommodation to the slow erosion, or the deliberate dismantling of the very foundations of this institution, it is no longer a compromise but compromising.”
At the beginning of 2026, the PGA said, “we are not only standing at a crossroads, but history will show whether we find the same courage and determination as our founding fathers and our founding mothers did 80 years ago.”
Organised by the United Nations Association-UK, Saturday's anniversary event gathered over 1,000 delegates from across the world. The event also marks the 80th anniversary of the first UN Security Council, which took place on 17 January 1946 at nearby Church House.
