World leaders begin speeches at UN General Assembly
WORLD leaders’ speeches at the annual session of the UN General Assembly began Tuesday (Sep 20) with a notable change of protocol: The president of the United States will not be speaking on the first day.
He was in London on Monday attending the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II along with many other world leaders, President Joe Biden will speak on Wednesday morning.
The United States hosts the UN headquarters, so the US president traditionally speaks second after Brazil, whose leader has traditionally spoken first since the 1950s.
António Guterres, the secretary-general of the UN, opened the session with a speech about a divided world in peril facing enormous challenges, from the threat of multilateralism, to conflict, climate change and food insecurity. Guterres told reporters last week that he will set out a call to action with concrete steps for tackling and overcoming these challenges.
President Emmanuel Macron of France will be another notable speaker on Tuesday afternoon, reiterating the threat to world order and international law because of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The war in Ukraine and its many rippling effects will be a major theme of the General Assembly this week. But there are not many world leaders who have access to the presidents of both Russia and Ukraine.
One who does, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, is also scheduled to speak on Tuesday. He has emerged as a key figure in mediating between Ukraine and Russia and, with Guterres, led the negotiations that resulted in a deal that allowed Ukraine’s grain to be shipped out of ports in the Black Sea.
The United States, the European Union and the African Union are jointly hosting a conference on Tuesday to address the global food insecurity crisis and appease the concerns of developing countries who say the West has ignored their problems and focused too much of its attention and aid on Ukraine.
Fumio Kishida, the prime minister of Japan, had been expected to speak on Tuesday, but his trip to New York has been delayed because of a typhoon in Japan. He will be leaving Japan on on Tuesday to take on the UN stage. NYTimes
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