Angela Merkel symbol of hospitality for those in need of protection: UN chief

Munich [Germany], Feb. 18 (ANI): United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres hailed the important role Germany has played at a number of multilateral institutions including the European Union and the United Nations, saying that the country and Chancellor Angela Merkel had been a symbol of "tolerance" and "hospitality" for people displaced from their homes and who are in need of protection. "Germany has been extremely active in all aspects in which the international community needs to come together to face the dramatic challenges that are threatening our daily lives," said Guterres at a press conference alongside German Chancellor Angela Merkel. The UN chief said that he would like to see this in other parts of the world in order to be able to respond to the dramatic suffering that is being witnessed because of the terrible conflicts that have spread around the globe. "So, in this moment, I would like to say that I am sure that the cooperation that, as Secretary-General, I will have with Germany and its Government will be as solid, as positive, as deep and as successful as the cooperation we had when, as High Commissioner for Refugees, I could be fully in support of the German policy for the protection of refugees," he said. Guterres also underlined the need for global responses to global challenges such as complex and interlinked conflicts, rising terrorism, impact of climate change and enormous movements of people and migration. He stressed on the importance of multilateralism and for countries to come together and to use multilateral institutions, in a spirit of solidarity, to overcome the obstacles of today's world. (ANI)