UNITED NATIONS
Warning that the world is in “great peril,” the head of the United Nations says leaders meeting in person for the first time in three years must tackle conflicts and climate catastrophes, increasing poverty and inequality — and address divisions among major powers that have gotten worse since Russia invaded Ukraine.
In speeches and remarks
leading up to the start of the leaders’ meeting Tuesday, Secretary-General
Antonio Guterres cited the “immense” task not only of saving the planet, “which
is literally on fire,” but of dealing with the persisting COVID-19 pandemic. He
also pointed to “a lack of access to finance for developing countries to
recover -- a crisis not seen in a generation” that has seen ground lost for
education, health and women’s rights.
Guterres will deliver his
“state of the world” speech at Tuesday’s opening of the annual high-level
global gathering. U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said it would be “a sober,
substantive and solutions-focused report card” for a world “where geopolitical
divides are putting all of us at risk.”
“There will be no
sugar-coating in his remarks, but he will outline reasons for hope,” Dujarric
told reporters Monday.
The 77th General Assembly
meeting of world leaders convenes under the shadow of Europe’s first major war
since World War II — the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, which has
unleashed a global food crisis and opened fissures among major powers in a way
not seen since the Cold War.
Yet nearly 150 heads of state
and government are on the latest speakers’ list. That’s a sign that despite the
fragmented state of the planet, the United Nations remains the key gathering
place for presidents, prime ministers, monarchs and ministers to not only
deliver their views but to meet privately to discuss the challenges on the
global agenda -- and hopefully make some progress.
At the top of that agenda for
many: Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine, which not only threatens the
sovereignty of its smaller neighbor but has raised fears of a nuclear
catastrophe at Europe’s largest nuclear plant in the country’s now
Russia-occupied southeast.
Leaders in many countries are
trying to prevent a wider war and restore peace in Europe. Diplomats, though,
aren’t expecting any breakthroughs this week.
The loss of important grain and fertilizer exports from Ukraine and Russia has triggered a food crisis, especially in developing countries, and inflation and a rising cost of living in many others. Those issues are high on the agenda.
At a meeting Monday to promote
U.N. goals for 2030 — including ending extreme poverty, ensuring quality
education for all children and achieving gender equality — Guterres said the
world’s many pressing perils make it “tempting to put our long-term development
priorities to one side.”
But the U.N. chief said some
things can’t wait — among them education, dignified jobs, full equality for
women and girls, comprehensive health care and action to tackle the climate
crisis. He called for public and private finance and investment, and above all
for peace.
The death of Britain’s Queen
Elizabeth II and her funeral in London on Monday, which many world leaders
attended, have created last-minute headaches for the high-level meeting.
Diplomats and U.N. staff have scrambled to deal with changes in travel plans, the
timing of events and the logistically intricate speaking schedule for world
leaders.
The global gathering, known as
the General Debate, was entirely virtual in 2020 because of the pandemic, and
hybrid in 2021. This year, the 193-member General Assembly returns to only
in-person speeches, with a single exception — Ukrainian President Volodymyr
Zelenskyy.
Over objections from Russia
and a few allies, the assembly voted last Friday to allow the Ukrainian leader
to prerecord his speech because of reasons beyond his control — the “ongoing
foreign invasion” and military hostilities that require him to carry out his
“national defense and security duties.”
By tradition, Brazil has
spoken first for over seven decades because, at the early General Assembly
sessions, it volunteered to start when no other country did.
The U.S. president,
representing the host country for the United Nations, is traditionally the
second speaker. But Joe Biden is attending the queen’s funeral, and his speech
has been pushed to Wednesday morning. Senegalese President Macky Sall is
expected to take Biden’s slot. - AP
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