NEW YORK CITY: The UN’s secretary-general, Antonio Guterres, warned on Friday that the Security Council’s “legitimacy is fragile.”
He urged member states to recommit to the founding principles of the UN Charter and take urgent action to reform the council so that it better reflects the geopolitical realities of today.
“Too often, we have seen members of this body act outside the principles of the Charter, principles we have all freely agreed to as sovereign nations,” Guterres said.
“When that happens, it not only stalls action in the moment, it erodes trust in the entire United Nations project. It also puts us all in great danger.”
Speaking from Hanoi, he was addressing a Security Council open debate convened by Russia, which holds the rotating presidency of the council this month, to mark the 80th anniversary of the UN. It was titled “The United Nations Organization: Looking Into the Future.”
The council remains a “vital necessity and a powerful force for good,” Guterres said. He credited it with helping to end apartheid in South Africa, restore peace in post-genocide Cambodia, and prevent a major-power war for eight decades.
But he cautioned that there was now a risk that these achievements would be undermined by paralysis, geopolitical rivalries and a lack of representativeness.
Reform of the Security Council, Guterres said, is “imperative and long overdue.”
He called for an expansion of its membership, noting that nearly half of all UN peacekeeping missions are deployed in Africa, yet the continent still lacks a permanent seat on the council. Latin America and the Caribbean also remain underrepresented, while the Asia-Pacific region, home to more than half of the world’s population, has only one permanent seat.
“Expanding the membership is not only about justice, it is also about results,” he said. “It has the potential to undo deadlocks and offer stability in our increasingly multipolar world.”
Guterres welcomed proposals by France and the UK to voluntarily limit the use of the power of veto held by them and the other permanent members of the council (Russia, China and the US). Such a measure has long been debated as a way to ensure the council can be more responsive to crises, including conflicts such as those in Ukraine, Gaza and Sudan.
“The Security Council is not about hegemons and empires,” he said. “It is about parents who have lost their children, refugees flung far from their homes, soldiers who have sacrificed their limbs.”
Calling for a renewed moral purpose and greater inclusivity, Guterres added: “The time has come to open the doors of the chamber and let in the light. Without a Security Council fit for purpose, the world is in grave danger.”
Security Council’s legitimacy at stake as it marks its 80th anniversary, UN chief warns
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Security Council’s legitimacy at stake as it marks its 80th anniversary, UN chief warns
- Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urges members to recommit to founding principles and reform the council to better reflect modern geopolitical realities
- ‘The time has come to open the doors of the chamber and let in the light. Without a Security Council fit for purpose, the world is in grave danger,’ he says
World copper rush promises new riches for Zambia
CAPE TOWN: Five years after becoming Africa’s first Covid-era debt defaulter, Zambia is seeing a dramatic turnaround in fortunes as major powers vie for access to its vast reserves of copper.
Surging demand from the artificial intelligence, green energy and defense sectors has exponentially boosted demand for the workhorse metal that underpins power grids, data centers and electric vehicles.
The scramble for copper exposes geopolitical rivalries as industrial heavyweights — including China, the United States, Canada, Europe, India and Gulf states — compete to secure supplies.
“We have the investors back,” President Hakainde Hichilema told delegates at the African Mining Indaba conference on Monday, saying that more than $12 billion had flowed into the sector since 2022.
The politically stable country is Africa’s second-largest copper producer, after the conflict-ridden Democratic Republic of Congo, and the world’s eighth, according to the US Geological Survey.
The metal, needed for solar panels and wind turbines, generates about 15 percent of Zambia’s GDP and more than 70 percent of export earnings.
Output rose eight percent last year to more than 890,000 metric tons and the government aims to triple production within a decade.
Mining is driving growth that is forecast by the International Monetary Fund to reach 5.2 percent in 2025 and 5.8 percent this year, which places Zambia among the continent’s faster-growing economies.
“The seeds are sprouting and the harvest is coming,” Hichilema said, touting a planned nationwide geological survey to map untapped deposits.
But the rapid expansion of the heavily polluting industry has also led to warnings about risks to local communities and concerns of “pit-to-port” extraction, in which raw copper is shipped directly abroad with little domestic refining.
’Dramatic new chapter’
“We need to be aware of the potential for history to repeat itself,” said Daniel Litvin, founder of the Resource Resolutions group that promotes sustainable development, referring to the colonial-era scramble for Africa’s resources.
There is a risk that elites will be enriched at the expense of the broader population, while “narratives of partnership” offered by major powers can mask underlying self-interest, he said.
Chinese firms have long dominated the sector in Zambia and control major stakes in key mines and smelters, cementing Beijing’s early-mover advantage.
Another major player is Canada’s First Quantum Minerals, Zambia’s largest corporate taxpayer.
Investors from India and the Gulf are expanding their footprint, and the United States is returning to the market after largely pulling out decades ago.
Washington, which has been stockpiling copper, this month launched a $12 billion “Project Vault” public-private initiative to secure critical minerals, part of an effort to reduce reliance on China.
In September, the US Trade and Development Agency announced a $1.4 million grant to a Metalex Commodities subsidiary, Metalex Africa, to expand operations in Zambia.
“We are at the beginning of what is going to unfold to be a dramatic new chapter in the way that the free world sources and trades in critical minerals,” US energy secretary adviser Mike Kopp said at Mining Indaba.
Sweeping US tariffs introduced last year helped send copper prices soaring to record highs, as companies rushed to buy both semi-finished and refined stocks.
Cost of rush
“The risk is that this great power competition becomes a race to secure supply on terms that serve markets and not the people in producer countries,” said Deprose Muchena, a program director at the Open Society Foundation.
Despite its mineral wealth, more than 70 percent of Zambia’s 21 million people live in poverty, according to the World Bank.
“The world is waking up to Zambia’s copper. But Zambia has been living with copper and its consequences for a century,” Muchena told AFP.
Environmental damage caused by mining has long plagued Zambia’s copper belt.
In February 2025, a burst tailings dam at a Chinese-owned mine near Kitwe, about 285 kilometers (180 miles) north of Lusaka, spilled millions of liters of acidic waste.
Toxins entered a tributary feeding the Kafue, Zambia’s longest river and a major source of drinking water. Zambian farmers have filed an $80 billion lawsuit.
“Whether this boom is different depends on whether governance, rights, and community agency are at the center, not just supply chain security,” Muchena said.
