Senior United Nations officials have expressed their congratulations to the President-elect of the United States, Joe Biden, and Vice-President Kamala Harris, on their election victory on Saturday.
“The Secretary-General congratulates the American people on a lively exercise of democracy in the country’s election last week,” reads a statement released on Monday on behalf of António Guterres.
“He congratulates the President-elect and the Vice-President-elect,” the statement continued, “and reaffirms that the partnership between the United States and the United Nations is an essential pillar of the international cooperation needed to meet the dramatic challenges to address what the world is facing today. . “
The president of the UN General Assembly, Volkan Bozkir, noted in a tweet that Mr. Biden ” had a long history of supporting the UN ”, and in Harris her election was a ‘milestone for gender equality’.
“I look forward to deepening UN-US ties and working together for a safer and more prosperous world.”
President Donald Trump has not accepted the outcome and is taking on legal challenges in court, with his campaign team filing lawsuits in several key states.
‘Great uplifting moment’
The head of UN Women, Phumzile Mlambo Ngcuka, described the prospect of having the first woman ever as vice-president as “an extremely uplifting moment” for women and girls around the world, “especially for women of color”. Me. Harris, who currently sits in the U.S. Senate and represents California, is of Jamaican and Indian descent.
The Director-General of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Audrey Azoulay, tweeted that the “global challenges of today require a renewed commitment by the United States” to the general welfare of the pillars of science, education and culture.
She also noted that she was ‘very pleased to see a teacher pull up’ in the top job at the White House, in the form of former Vice President Biden’s wife, Jill, who indicated she would remain full-time as first lady work.
‘More important than ever’
“US leadership is more important than ever for the most vulnerable in the world,” UNHCR chief Filippo Grandi said in a tweet. He warmly congratulated the couple and said the agency was looking forward to working with the new government “on global and domestic refugee issues.”
This was a sentiment expressed by António Vitorino, the Director-General of the International Organization for Migration (IOM). He said on Twitter that the UN Migration Agency was looking forward to working with the new administration “to manage migration for the benefit of all.”
Earlier in the day, the head of the United Nations Health Agency (WTO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, congratulated the declared winners of the US election and noted that the World Health Organization was looking forward to working ‘very closely’ with the administration.
After President Trump made the decision earlier this year to withdraw the US from the WHO in response to alleged missteps in the early course of the coronavirus pandemic, the president-elect has repeatedly promised to rejoin the organization.
Mr. Biden also tweeted this past weekend that on the first day of the new government, his government will recommit the Paris Agreement on Climate Change.