UN General Assembly with “eyes” on the war in Ukraine and food insecurity

Faced with many crises, world leaders are gathering from today, Tuesday (20/9) at UN General Assembly in an effort to overcome the differences that separate them. On the “table” are the war in Ukraine, climate disasters and food insecurity.

For almost a week, around 150 heads of state and government from around the world will take the floor and they will address the General Assembly, which after two years will normally take place in person.

Traditionally, during today’s first day of the General Assembly, the American president delivers his speech, whose country hosts this diplomatic event at its headquarters UN. But this year Joe Biden will deliver his speech tomorrow Wednesday (21/9), as yesterday he attended the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II in London.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ speech to open the 77th General Assembly “will not sugarcoat things”, warned his spokesman Stephane Dujarric.

“We are meeting at a time when the world is in great danger,” Guterres underlined yesterday Monday (19/9), speaking of “conflicts and climate disasters”, “mistrust and division”, “poverty, inequality and discrimination”.

THE war in Ukraine will be at the center of this diplomatic week, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky giving a video speech – having been granted special permission – and a Security Council meeting on Thursday at the level of foreign ministers.

But the countries of the southern hemisphere are increasingly annoyed that Westerners are focusing their attention exclusively on Ukraine.

“We don’t just want to talk about ending the conflict in Ukraine. We want an end to the conflicts in Tigray (including in Ethiopia), we want an end to the conflicts in Syria, we want an end to the conflicts wherever they break out around the world,” Barbados Prime Minister Mia Motley said yesterday Monday.

Iranian nuclear program

In an effort to address the concerns of some countries, the Americans and Europeans are holding a high-level conference today on food security, which has worsened since the war in Ukraine.

At the same time, poor countries, which are most affected by the effects of climate change for which they are least responsible, are trying to make the richest countries keep their promises of financial aid.

Two months before the COP27 climate conference in Egypt, Guterres will address the climate crisis in his opening speech as he has made the fight to reduce greenhouse gases one of his priorities.

Today, as reported by the Athens News Agency, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz are going to take the floor of the General Assembly.

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi will also be in New York for the General Assembly, with his country’s nuclear program likely to be at the center of discussions.

Raisi will meet today with French President Emmanuel Macron, who has repeatedly tried in phone calls to encourage him to accept the conditions set by the Europeans to revive the 2015 deal on Iran’s nuclear program.

Resounding absences, however, will be those of Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping.