The United Nations Security Council Thursday formally approved the nomination of former Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Guterres to be the next secretary-general.
The recommendation now goes to the 193-member UN General Assembly for final ratification.
Guterres, who was head of the UN’s refugee agency for 10 years until 2015, emerged as the Security Council’s runaway favorite after the latest in a series of straw polls on Wednesday.
The informal votes were used by the Security Council to thin the ranks of the 13 candidates who entered the race to become the new face of the UN.
The quick approval signaled that Russia and the United States could work together on UN issues despite the serious differences dividing them in hotspots around the globe
Guterres, a trained engineer who worked as an assistant professor before entering politics in 1974, led his country from 1995 to 2002 as head of the Socialist Party.
From 2005 to 2015, he served as the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. He is credited with cutting costs at the agency during his tenure, as well as lifting its performance as it grappled with the migrant crisis.
A practicing Catholic, Guterres remarried after his first wife died of cancer, and has two children.
In Guterres’ vision statement in applying for the position, he wrote of the challenges facing the world in terms of rising inequality, terrorism and organized crime, climate change and the proliferation of armed actors internationally.
He wrote that the UN was “uniquely placed to connect the dots to overcome these challenges,” but that change and reform are needed.
“People in need of protection are not getting enough,” he wrote. “The most vulnerable, such as women and children, are an absolute priority. We must make sure that when someone sees the Blue Flag, she or he can say: ‘I am protected’.”
