It took a queen to shake up this year’s high-profile week at the United Nations General Assembly – an annual whirlwind known as the UNGA that kicks off on Tuesday.
The UN gang is finally meeting in person again, after three years of leaders speaking via video due to the global pandemic. But many leaders from the 193 UN member states were in the UK for Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral on Monday, forcing their UN missions to try to reschedule speeches and the appointment.
Perhaps most significant among the changes, US President Joe Biden will speak on Wednesday morning instead of taking America’s traditional second slot after Brazil on Tuesday. Biden also set up early talks with leaders of countries in London, which may limit some discussions in Manhattan.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will be the only world leader to speak via video, as he is preoccupied by the war in his country. The Assembly on Friday overrode Russian objections to allow Zelensky to speak virtually.
The invasion of UN member state Ukraine by Russia, a permanent member of the UN Security Council, could cast a shadow over the entire General Assembly:
“The General Assembly is meeting at a time of great peril,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said at a press conference last week. “The geostrategic differences are the biggest since at least the Cold War. They paralyze the global response to the dramatic challenges we face.”
Don’t expect this year’s General Assembly to be “business as usual,” US Assistant Secretary for International Affairs Michele Sison said Friday. “Russia’s unprovoked, ongoing aggression in Ukraine raises serious questions about its commitment to diplomacy, the UN Charter and the territorial integrity of nations.”
Many UN diplomats say Russia has jeopardized the credibility and image of the UN this year by invading another UN country, with the UN unable to persuade Russian President Vladimir Putin to stop.
The vast majority of UN members strongly oppose Russia’s war in Ukraine. Expect Western countries to use their official speeches to bash Moscow. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will speak on Saturday, but no Western country has said whether it has bilateral plans with the Russian visitor.
Others fear that Russia’s war has displaced other issues of global importance, such as the climate crisis. “This would have been a climate UNGA, but Russia took care of that with its invasion of Ukraine,” one diplomat told CNN.
“It takes up a lot of space,” Stephane Dujarric, a spokesman for the UN Secretary-General, said during a press conference on Monday. “Because we know that the war in Ukraine has a global impact, on food, on grain, on the energy crisis. It has a negative impact on the fight against climate change, where – due to the energy crisis – we see Member States returning to polluting energy sources”.
“However, it does not prevent the Secretary-General from raising all these other issues,” he added.
But US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield stressed the need to take a broad view, telling reporters on Friday that “next week will not be dominated by Ukraine, but we will not ignore Ukraine. We know that as this horrific war rages across Ukraine, we cannot ignore the rest of the world,” he added.
“Many leaders who feel [Russia’s war in Ukraine] it distracts from the problem in their region,” the UN’s International Crisis Group director, Richard Gowan, also said.
On Thursday morning, there will be a Thursday morning Security Council meeting on Ukraine, with Lavrov the most senior member of the Russian government in attendance.
However, some may wish for fewer verbal attacks on Moscow, seven months after the conflict. A diplomat told CNN that poorer countries on the fringes feel a calmer tone could help end the conflict — and they need Russian oil or food.
Food security is another important topic for the global forum, with the global economy hit hard by the pandemic, inflation and strained supply chains. US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken is expected to chair a meeting on food during the high-level week.
“What we’re hoping to do is really bring people together to address all the issues related to food insecurity. So it brings both the South and countries – developing countries and donor countries together in the room to address these issues,” said US Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield.
However, it is another year where citizens of the world may wonder what the UN is really doing, given the nightmare in Ukraine and low levels of donations from member countries for other crises.
“The UN as an organization is no longer able to deliver because everything is upside down,” said another UN diplomat.
But at least it can put on a big show again, with many world leaders making their first appearance in several years. There will be hundreds of speeches, handshakes, parties and panels. It is estimated that 140 heads of state and government will attend. And they will be chased by hundreds of media members from around the world.
As another diplomat put it, everyone is a “moving target” at the UNGA.
