At the end of September, as usual, most of the world’s leaders converge on New York for the annual UN General Assembly (UNGA) session to present their national perspectives and emphatically demand increased global cooperation. This year will see the 79th UNGA, with the UN’s thematic summit project before the UNGA meeting entitled the “Summit of the Future,” seen as a road map to fit the multilateral system to address the challenges of the 21st century.
As every year, the “instant experts” on global issues are all in attendance or commenting in print on the Summit/UNGA, leaders’ speeches, hundreds of bilateral leaders meetings, or the star-studded NGO side events across Manhattan, when not complaining about the New York humidity or the intolerable traffic jams that unavoidably accompany every UNGA to Manhattan.
Approaching the UN’s 80th anniversary in 2025
Despite the pressure created by so much ongoing global conflict, the clamor seen in 2024 may turn out to be somewhat routine; readers should expect substantially greater fanfare next year when the UN celebrates the 80th anniversary of its founding in 1945.
The big question on many observers’ minds is what the world will be like in September 2025 when it comes time to celebrate the UN’s 80th birthday. Will the U.S. remain “UN-friendly” as it is currently positioned with a Democrat in the White House or will a Donald Trump victory this November augur in a new dark cloud of deep mistrust in relations between the U.S. and the UN?
Summit of the Future
Almost every annual high level UNGA meeting is designed to focus on or reinforce a major UN objective or ongoing project. The “Summit of the Future” is this year’s special objective.
For senior UN officials, this Summit was seen as a blueprint to salvage trust.
The proposal for a Summit of the Future originated in the UN’s “Our Common Agenda” report. The report was a response by the UN Secretary-General to a call from UN member states for ideas on how better to respond to current and future challenges.
The UN’s Common Agenda report called for a renewal of trust and solidarity at all levels – between peoples, countries and generations. It argued for a fundamental rethink of current political, economic and social systems so that they deliver more fairly and effectively for all member states and citizens. It also recommended a corresponding renewal of the multilateral system, with the Summit of the Future as a defining moment to agree on the most critical improvements necessary.
Member states agreed to schedule the Summit for September 2024. They also agreed that the Summit would have an outcome – an outcome document called the “Pact for the Future.”
UN members agreed on the overarching purpose of the Summit, and the Pact: to reaffirm the UN Charter; to reinvigorate multilateralism; to boost implementation of existing commitments; to agree on solutions to new challenges; and to restore trust.
The Summit of the Future was charged with creating the conditions in which implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development can more readily be achieved, as the UN Secretariat argues the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are badly off track. The Summit sought to build on the outcome of the 2023 SDG Summit. In addition, Summit called for improvements to international cooperation that enable UN member states to solve problems together.
In opening the Summit UN Secretary General Guterres said, “We are here to bring multilateralism back from the brink.”
High Level Plenary meetings galore
What most people have come to understand as the UN General Assembly September meeting is formally called the “Annual High-Level General Debate.” Televised globally, this year’s official General Debate theme was entitled: “Leaving no one behind: acting together for the advancement of peace, sustainable development and human dignity for present and future generations.” All that really means is that heads of state/leaders addressing the General Debate included at least a few introductory sentences related to the overall subject before careening off into their individual country narratives and messaging strategies. Nothing unusual there.
In addition to the Summit of the Future, the 79th UNGA High Level Week featured three other focused High-Level meetings:
1. High-level plenary meeting on addressing the existential threats posed by sea level rise.
2. High-level plenary meeting to commemorate and promote the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons.
3. High-level meeting on antimicrobial resistance.
Geopolitics is the name of the game
The major headlines flowing from UNGA normally have less to do with the UN’s global and development initiatives and primarily concern ongoing armed conflicts and major power interactions on the sidelines of UNGA meetings. That is certainly true for UNGA 79 even though two of the Security Council’s permanent members (the so called P5) leaders will not be represented by their respective heads of state (Russia and China).
With the Lebanon crisis widening almost every hour and generating much comment in the General Assembly Debate, an emergency meeting of the Security Council was held September 26 as key regional players worked to develop a ceasefire plan.
In a joint statement, the EU, UK and U.S. called for a temporary ceasefire in Lebanon following the escalation in fighting between Israel and Hezbollah. This is also being referred to in the media as the U.S.-France ceasefire proposal. The allies proposed an immediate 21-day pause in fighting “to provide space for diplomacy towards the conclusion of a diplomatic settlement” and a ceasefire in Gaza. Although some Israeli leaders seem interested in a shorter ceasefire to allow for de-escalation even as their ground forces appear to be mobilizing for potential cross-border incursions, Hezbollah has not yet responded and continues to fire sizeable missile barrages towards Israel, itself responding with multiple targeted airstrikes.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, arriving in New York September 26, has revealed no inclination to accept a temporary ceasefire. He is not currently scheduled to have a bilateral meeting with President Biden on U.S. soil. Some observers suggest that American electoral politics play a significant role in Netanyahu’s latest moves re Lebanon.
“Hell is breaking loose in Lebanon,” Secretary General Antonio Guterres warned at the Security Council meeting, noting that the exchanges of fire along the UN-patrolled line of separation “have expanded in scope, depth and intensity.” He urged the Council at the emergency meeting “to work in lock-step” to end the escalating violence between Israeli forces and Hezbollah militants across the Blue Line in southern Lebanon.
“Despite the dangerous conditions, our peacekeepers remain in position,” Guterres said, referring to the almost forgotten UN Interim Force, UNIFIL, although most civilian personnel have temporarily relocated.
This is happening while evacuation plans for western citizens in Lebanon are being activated and military support units are being moved into nearby Cyprus and off the Lebanese coast.
The war in Ukraine has not been forgotten, although clearly overshadowed.
Expectations that the UN system can contribute to ending the Russian invasion of Ukraine have long been close to zero, for the simple reason that Russia is a P5 Security Council member and is able to veto every Security Council resolution regarding the war that even sounds inappropriate to Russian ears. This veto power does not apply to the UN General Assembly where Russia has been severely ostracized. Fortunately, Ukraine is a full UN member so its ability to otherwise utilize the UN system is unhampered, at least officially.
While in New York for the UNGA, Zelenskiy spent much of his energy trying to gather the support of Western leaders for what he calls a “victory plan” to end the war. Very little has been announced so far about the victory plan, except that it would work as a bridge to a second Ukraine-led summit on peace that Kyiv wants to hold and invite Russia to later in 2024.
His speech at a Security Council session on the war focused on one key point, forcing Russia to move towards peace. “Putin has broken so many international norms and rules that he won’t stop on his own, Russia can only be forced into peace, and that is exactly what’s needed, forcing Russia into peace, as the sole aggressor in this war, the sole violator of the U.N. Charter,” Zelenskiy argued.
Zelenskiy also pointed to North Korea and Iran for providing arms to Russia for the war, labeling them “de facto accomplices” of Putin. Reiterating a point he has expressed many times before, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told the Council: “China – another permanent member of this Council – is the top provider of machine tools, microelectronics and other items that Russia is using to rebuild, to restock, to ramp up its war machine and sustain its brutal aggression.” This triggered a furious rebuttal from Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi.
More than 30 countries and the European Union have agreed to sign onto the G7’s Joint Declaration of Support for the Recovery and Reconstruction of Ukraine issued on September 24.
US President Joe Biden announced a new $8 billion security assistance “surge” package for Ukraine on September 26, timed with President Zelenskiy’s Washington visit.
Also in New York, the G7+ Group on Ukraine Energy Sector Support held its fifth Ministerial Meeting on the margins of the UNGA and released a comprehensive list of continuing sectoral support commitments.
U.S. November election pulls attention away from global issues
As if the Lebanon crisis was not enough of a distraction, foreign leaders attending the UNGA have secondary objectives while in the U.S. for the High-Level Debate. A number of leaders have requested meetings with Candidate/Former President Donald Trump, who spent part of the week on the campaign trail. There are no details about a Trump meeting with PM Netanyahu, who cut his U.S. visit short September 27th to return home due to the crisis in Lebanon. A meeting between Trump and Zelenskiy was hastily scheduled for September 27, at Trump Tower in New York, despite sharply negative Republican reaction to some of Zelenskiy’s meetings and remarks in previous days. In that meeting, Trump reportedly boasted about his good relationship with Russia’s Vladimir Putin which he said would enable him to find a quick solution to the war.
Other leaders have requested meetings with Candidate/Vice President Kamala Harris, who remained in Washington while President Biden shuttled to/from from New York for his extensive UNGA responsibilities, along with much of the State Department and National Security Council. President Zelenskiy held scheduled meetings with both Biden and Harris in Washington on September 26, and UK PM Starmer had requested a Washington meeting as well (Starmer was ultimately able to meet Trump in New York). Republican legislators took a hostile tone regarding the Zelenskiy Washington visit on September 26, accusing him and Ukraine’s Ambassador in Washington of openly supporting the Democrats in the November election. They also took aim at Zelenskiy’s visit to an arms factory in President Biden’s hometown of Scranton, Pennsylvania accompanied by the state’s Democratic governor, labeling that event as openly partisan.
None of this is unusual as Washington is the primary target of opportunity for foreign leaders already in New York before/after they have delivered their UNGA speeches, and it is not unusual for visiting foreign officials to tack on meetings with congressional leaders and Washington think tanks since the opportunity to engage U.S. contacts usually requires advance State Department approval and organization, but not during the UNGA period, except for a small set of countries who are already under various U.S. Government travel restrictions/sanctions.
