United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres has called on China and the United States to ease geopolitical rivalry in a world in which fighting the pandemic and climate change and improving global governance are the top priorities.

Guterres made the remarks while addressing a special session of the Munich Security Conference that focuses on trans-Atlantic relations.

The world needs to ease geopolitical tensions and enhance diplomacy for peace, he said.

"We cannot solve the biggest problems when the biggest powers are at odds. Our world cannot afford a future where the two largest economies split the globe into two opposing areas in a Great Fracture－each with its own dominant currency and trade and financial rules, its own internet and its artificial intelligence capacity and strategy."

He warned that a technological and economic divide risks turning into a geostrategic and military divide. "We must avoid this at all costs," Guterres said.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said in a speech: "China, on the one hand, is a competitor, but on the other hand, we need China to settle global problems such as climate change, biodiversity and others."

China has gained more power on the international stage in recent years, and the trans-Atlantic alliance needs to react to this development, but Merkel added that relations with China are "more complex" than those with Russia.

China-EU ties

Merkel was a major advocate for the China-EU Comprehensive Agreement on Investment concluded on Dec 30.

She did not mention the Nord Stream 2, a project to bring Russian gas to the heart of Europe and a key irritant in German-US relations. Bloomberg reported that the US is likely to hold off sanctioning any German entities over the gas pipeline project as the administration of US President Joe Biden seeks to halt the project without antagonizing its close European ally.

Biden repeated in his speech his words that "America is back". He called on Europeans to "prepare together for a long-term strategic competition" with China, saying that competition is going to be "stiff".

Both Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron have rejected joining the US in ganging up on China.

At the Friday conference, Guterres lamented that the global challenges are getting bigger and more complex but the responses remain fragmented and insufficient, citing the pandemic response, looming climate crisis, inequality and discrimination.

"Now, 2021 must be the year to get back on track," he said.

Guterres called for a global vaccination plan available and affordable for everyone and everywhere.

The G20 is well placed to play the role by bringing together countries, companies, international organizations and financial institutions, he said.

Macron said that if Europe and the US deliver the 13 million doses needed to vaccinate healthcare workers in Africa, then "the West will be present and will be respected in Africa".

He was comparing the West to China and Russia, which have been supplying millions of doses to developing nations.

Politico, quoting a senior US official, reported on Thursday that the Biden administration will not donate to poor countries any of the vaccine doses the US has bought before most people there are vaccinated.

On Friday Guterres also urged the world to reach net zero greenhouse gas emissions by midcentury.