The UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, has called on world leaders in his New Year message to step away from destruction and instead, invest in development.
In a first, the UN chief’s message for the year 2026 comes in Hindi and Urdu among nine other languages that include the six official UN languages of Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian, and Spanish.
“As we enter the new year, the world stands at a crossroads. Chaos and uncertainty surround us,” Guterres said in his message for the upcoming year, on Monday. “People everywhere are asking: Are leaders even listening? Are they ready to act?”
The video message, which comes with Hindi subtitles as well, appeals for urgent attention to the scale of human suffering in the world today that sees over one-quarter of lives affected by conflict.
With more than 200 million people needing humanitarian assistance, and nearly 120 million people have been forcibly displaced, fleeing war, crises, disasters or persecution, Guterres called on world leaders today to get their “priorities straight” and devolve from focusing on military spending.
“As we turn the page on a turbulent year, one fact speaks louder than words: global military spending has soared to $2.7 trillion, growing by almost 10 per cent,” he said.
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“On this New Year, let’s resolve to get our priorities straight. A safer world begins by investing more in fighting poverty and less in fighting wars. Peace must prevail,” Guterres said.
Despite escalating humanitarian crises around the world, global military spending is projected to more than double – from $2.7 trillion in 2024 to an astonishing $6.6 trillion by 2035 – if current trends persist, shows data. Tragically, this amount of $2.7 trillion is thirteen times the amount of all global development aid combined, and is equivalent to the entire Gross Domestic Product of the continent of Africa.
In 2018, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed between India and the UN Department of Global Communications, establishing the ‘Hindi@UN’ Project, with the primary focus on broadcasting UN news in Hindi.
For this, the Government of India also pledged 1.5 million dollars per annum for a period of five years, over and above the cumulative contribution of 6.8 million dollars.
Earlier this year, Permanent Representative of India to the UN Ambassador, P Harish, and Under Secretary General Department of Global Communications (DGC), Melissa Fleming, signed an MoU, renewing the Hindi@UN Project for a period of five years, from April 1, 2025 to March 31 2030.
Harish had noted that the renewal of the MoU is a testimony to Government of India’s commitment to give greater prominence to Hindi, including in the United Nations as one of its non-official languages. Further, the renewal was a testimony to India’s strong and historic commitment to multilingualism, he said.
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