Takeaways from 76th UN General Assembly meeting
When the United Nations was established in 1945, it committed to maintain international peace and security by encouraging the development of friendly relations among nations. The General Assembly is one of the principal organs of the United Nations, which provides a platform for discussing various international issues. Every year, the UNGA meets in September to discuss issues brought by the world leaders. On September 14, 2021, President Abdulla Shahid of Maldives opened the 76th United Nations General Assembly session, and the debate began on Tuesday, 21.
In the UNGA, all 193 member states of the UN are given equal opportunity to be represented. This year, the session was addressed by world leaders in a hybrid format that combined in-person and online speeches. The theme for the 76th session was "Building resilience through hope to recover from COVID-19, rebuild sustainability, respond to the needs of the planet, respect the rights of people, and revitalize the United Nations".
Different Country, Different Concern
The UNGA heard speeches delivered by the world's most influential leaders. The leaders talked about the pandemic, climate change, human rights violations, counter-terrorism, Afghan crises, etc.
President Joe Biden, America
On September 21, President Biden delivered his first speech at the 76th UNGA. President Biden laid out an ambitious global agenda and urged the nations to tackle the challenges with unity through his speech. He brought out issues like climate crises, vaccination, trade, cyber, technologies, terrorism, etc., and asked countries to join forces to resolve such issues. His speech highlighted his "efforts of rebuilding trust and confidence in America's global leadership," which was shuddered during the Trump years (Labott, 2021). However, experts and European diplomats doubted President Biden's speech due to a "disconnect between … his words and his actions since taking office" (Labott, 2021).
President Biden was criticized for the Afghanistan crisis. People questioned his management on handling the situation in Afghanistan during the US troop pull-out as it was hasty and chaotic. Bremmer states that despite the US' renewal of engagement with the European Union in tackling global issues, many European leaders are not sure about the benefits of such cooperation with the US. It is because Europe has been in a tough spot after the US troops withdrawal from Afghanistan. Bremmer writes that there were more European troops than Americans in the last days of conflict, yet European governments were not involved in the withdrawal plan (2021).
Without mentioning the name of China, President Biden reiterated that the US does not want a new Cold War. However, his recent policies clearly target China. For example, the Indo-Pacific Defense Pact or AUKUS was agreed between Australia, Britain, and the US to counter China's maritime belligerence. This also enraged France as it was excluded from such a multibillion-dollar submarine deal.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, India
Prime Minister Narendra Modi delivered his speech in Hindi. Throughout his speech, PM Modi highlighted the identity of India as a mother of democracy. PM Modi also emphasized India's contribution to the world through vaccine diplomacy. He stated that India is facing a series of obstacles and problems with global recognition despite being the vaccine production hub of the world. According to WION, PM Modi articulated that there were unnecessary delays in recognizing the Covishield vaccine by major western countries as those countries added restrictions for citizens of India traveling abroad. Finally, PM Modi invited world leaders and vaccine manufacturers to come, make vaccines in India. PM Modi brought out that India has developed the world's first DNA vaccine that people above 12 years can use. He further stated that India understands her responsibility towards humanity, and thus India can become a reliable destination for vaccine production.
Dilip Sinha, a former envoy to the UN, mentioned that PM Modi called for reforms in the UN and demanded more prominent roles for India. He stated that India has been talking about her permanent membership of the Security Council. Nonetheless, the UN's credibility is going down in handling such issues along with the climate crises, Afghanistan crises, and Covid19. Mr. Sinha further stated that although the UN should play a broader role in maintaining international peace and security, its role has been reduced to refugee care. Instead of maintaining stability, the UN only appeals to the world to provide humanitarian assistance to the vulnerable.
Lastly, without mentioning Pakistan, PM Modi pointed out that terrorism is a threat not only to the world, but also to the countries that sponsor it. He subtly targeted China by stating that ocean resources should be used, not abused, as oceans are our shared heritage.
President Xi Jinping, People's Republic of China
On September 21, President Xi Jinping attended the 76th session of the UNGA through a video link and spoke on 'Bolstering Confidence and Jointly Overcoming Difficulties to Build a Better World'. His speech included elements of Chinese rhetoric, in which he mentioned that this year would mark the centenary of the Communist Party of China. He proudly said that the 76th session of the UNGA would be the 50th anniversary of the restoration of the PRC's lawful seat in the United Nations. He continued the speech by focusing on the ways to deal with the pandemic
Most importantly, President Xi announced that China would stop funding coal projects overseas to reduce a key source of pollution behind climate change. This comes as a big surprise because China is the world's largest public financier of coal projects (Palmer, 2021). It can be noted that a major UN climate change conference, COP26, would take place in November in Glasgow. China has already faced complaints related to pollution, financing dirty energy, Belt and Road infrastructure, etc. Thus, such a pro-climate announcement would help China to emerge as a fair player. As a result, the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and the US climate Envoy John Kerry praised China's commitment to green energy.
However, Palmer points out a few caveats with China's new commitment. First, it is still not sure whether President Xi would continue existing projects that include about 40 Gigawatts of coal-fuelled energy across twenty countries (2021). If China does discontinue such projects, it would be detrimental for China's investments in developing countries. Nonetheless, President Xi did mention that developing countries would be supported through green and low carbon energy.
Sergey V. Lavrov, Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation
While President Putin was absent at the UNGA, his foreign minister Sergey V. Lavrov delivered a speech and called for a new consensus to uphold the principles of the UN Charter. He urged the UN to unleash its full potential to hold a central coordinating role in the world. Moreover, he clearly pointed out the Western countries for using the UN for their selfish national interests.
Mr. Lavrov criticized the US' proposal for a "Summit for Democracy" and stated that the US wanted to declare a new ideological crusade against all dissenters. He called on the Security Council to reform by increasing representation from Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Lastly, he praised President Putin's proposal to convene a summit of the council's permanent five members -China, France, Russia, the USA, and the UK- for a "frank discussion on global stability issues" (UN Affairs).
Other leaders on Climate Change, Afghanistan, COVID19
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro's statement on climate change is contradictory to his actions. At the UNGA, he stated that other countries should follow Brazil's environmental laws. However, Bolsonaro's regime has witnessed more deforestation, mining, and environmental degradation leading to Amazon wildfires. He also became the world's first unvaccinated leader to speak at the UNGA, clearly uplifting his anti-vaccine beliefs.
The Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, told the UN that Turkey would submit the Paris Agreement on climate change for ratification next month. He also introduced the Turkey-made vaccine TURKOVAC that would help the world to fight against the pandemic.
When the countries are still pondering their relations with Afghanistan, Qatar's emir urged leaders not to boycott the Taliban. Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani called on the world leaders for turning their backs on Taliban rulers. According to the emir, it is necessary to continue dialogue with the Taliban as dialogue could fetch positive results, whereas boycott could lead to detrimental reactions .
Conclusion
Caroline de Gruyter analyzes the speeches of different world leaders and concludes that they were not in the mood to be 'good neighbours'. She further mentions that the 76th UNGA turned out to be depressing due to limitless accusations and blame game among the countries. For example, the heated 'talk' between India and Pakistan grabbed the attention of experts, diplomats, and scholars. Pakistan accused India of carrying out human rights violations in Kashmir, whereas India accused Pakistan of brewing falsehood and terrorists. Russia's foreign minister also blasted France for opposing the deployment of Russian mercenaries in Mali. The US was discredited by both Russia and Iran for creating mayhem in Afghanistan. Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi also denounced American and Israelian influence in the Middle East and argued that nations like Yemen, Iraq, and Palestine must make decisions by themselves. Thus, instead of reaching a mutual consensus to ensure peace and security, the UNGA became a platform of remonstrance for countries.
Moreover, this year, only thirteen women got to speak at the UNGA, that shed some light on the gender disparity at the United Nations. Slovakian President Zuzana Caputova pointed out gender inequality in her speech on the first day. She said that "we cannot save our planet if we leave out the vulnerable- the women, the girls, the minorities." Also, Tanzanian President, Samia Suluhu Hassan became the first female president of her country to speak at the UNGA (Firstpost, 2021). Furthermore, both Pakistan and India used the function of the "right of reply" through their strong female diplomats (Saima Saleem and Sneha Dubey) that grabbed a whole lot of attention.
To end on a good note, BTS, a South Korean boy band joined South Korean President Moon Jae-in in the UNGA and delivered a speech filled with positivity. BTS was appointed as Presidential Special Envoy for Future Generation and Culture by President Moon Jae-in. BTS motivated the young generation to go for vaccination and also introduced a new name for the current generation, which is said to be lost due to the pandemic. According to BTS, the 'lost generation' should be called 'welcome generation' because this generation courageously welcomed the unexpected changes and got habituated accordingly instead of running away. BTS also performed their new single' Permission to Dance' that created a positive and healthy environment and side-tracked all the heated blame game.
References
1. Bremmer, I. (2021, September 24). How Biden's UN General Assembly Speech Lines up with reality. Time. Retrieved October 6, 2021, from https://time.com/6101374/joe-biden-unga-speech-promises/.
2. Policy, F. (2021, September 30). The world meets: Key Takeaways from the UN General Assembly. Crikey. Retrieved October 6, 2021, from https://www.crikey.com.au/2021/10/01/the-world-meets-key-takeaways-from-the-un-general-assembly/.
3. Press, A. (2021, September 24). Women's voices at the UN General Assembly growing, but still not enough. Firstpost. Retrieved October 6, 2021, from https://www.firstpost.com/world/womens-voices-at-the-un-general-assembly-growing-but-still-not-enough-9993311.html.
4. Staff, B. (2021, September 21). BTS had a special message for ARMYs in their United Nations General Assembly speech. News18. Retrieved October 6, 2021, from https://www.news18.com/news/buzz/bts-performed-at-the-united-nations-general-assembly-and-armys-cant-keep-calm-4226321.html.
5. Stepansky, J., & Varshalomidze, T. (2021, September 22). World leaders speak at United Nations General Assembly. United Nations News | Al Jazeera. Retrieved October 6, 2021, from https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/9/21/world-leaders-united-nations-general-assembly.
6. UN News. (2021, September 25). Russia calls for 'concerted efforts' to follow purposes and principles of UN charter . United Nations. Retrieved October 6, 2021, from https://news.un.org/en/story/2021/09/1101312.
Pic Courtesy-United Nations website
(The views expressed are those of the author and do not represent views of CESCUBE.)
