As announced shortly after the meeting at the United Nations headquarters, the main focus was on the pandemic. Kurz announced a large vaccine donation. “Any vaccine doses that we don’t use ourselves are donated to countries that are undersupplied compared to Europe and the US,” he said.
For his part, Guterres thanked Austria for crisis management during the pandemic. The UN employees in Vienna were also “vaccinated”. “That was very well received by the UN Secretary General, and he thanked him for it.”
Guterres painted a “dramatic picture” of the pandemic. In particular, it is expected that it “will keep poorer countries busy for a longer period of time”.
UN headquarters in Vienna is “an honor”
Guterres was recently re-elected as Secretary General for a second five-year term. Accordingly, the plans of the former Portuguese premier for a “realignment” of the United Nations were also an issue. “Our focus is on the official seat of Vienna,” said Kurz, emphasizing the importance of the third UN seat. For a small country, a UN seat is not only “a special honor”, but also an opportunity to “help shape” because one is close to the UN institutions.
