TNT: CandyKisses: Next week, the UN General Assembly convenes amid deep divisions and a global crisis
Baghdad – Mawazine News
About 150 world leaders will participate next week in the meetings of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, amid divisions over the war in Ukraine.
A few days before the annual rally, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said, “Our world is ravaged by war, wracked by climate chaos, wracked by hate, and shamed by poverty and inequality.”
Guterres added that geostrategic divisions “have never been this large since at least the Cold War… and are crippling the global response to these enormous challenges,” calling on world leaders to “work together” to find solutions.
Observers believe that the unification of global efforts has become a distant hope, as evidenced by the discussions about the Ukrainian president’s participation via video.
This year, there will be a return to the usual protocols, for any leader to speak before the General Assembly from Tuesday, in person, with the “special exception” of Vladimir Zelensky.
Ukraine’s President Zelensky was authorized, by a special vote in the General Assembly, on Friday, to send a pre-recorded message to the assembly, despite the dismay of Russia, which denounced what it called “the politicization of a procedural issue.”
“A number of countries are concerned that while we focus on Ukraine we are not paying enough attention to other crises around the world. It is not the case,” US Ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas Greenfield, told AFP.
“Things are going on as usual. We cannot ignore what is happening in the rest of the world,” she added, stressing in particular the food crisis, which will be the focus of many events.
For its part, the French presidency said that President Emmanuel Macron “will be keen on … dialogue with the southern partners to dispel the idea that the West is against the rest of the world,” and that the “climate emergency” will also be “at the heart of all issues of concern.”
