World leaders gathering in NYC for UN General Assembly
The wars in Gaza, Ukraine and Sudan and the growing possibility of a wider Mideast war are set to dominate the UN General Assembly this week.
Penny Wong
International leaders attending this week’s annual United Nations General Assembly will confront a swirl of conflicts and crises across a fragmented world.
Australia’s delegation will be led by Foreign Minister Penny Wong who has numerous engagements about the conflict in the Middle East and will be promoting a two-state solution.
“The United Nations is where the world comes together to agree and uphold the rules,” she said in a statement.
“Australia will be using this week to press the need to for all countries to uphold these laws and norms, including the adherence to the international humanitarian law and the protection of civilians and aid workers.”
This year the general assembly starts with the Summit of the Future where countries will be asked to endorse new commitments for a stronger UN to tackle the threats and problems of the future.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres issued the challenge a year ago after sounding a global alarm about the survival of humanity and the planet, saying it was time to start fixing the aging global architecture to meet the rapidly changing world.
The UN chief told reporters last week the summit “was born out of a cold, hard fact: international challenges are moving faster than our ability to solve them”.
He pointed to “out-of-control geopolitical divisions” and “runaway” conflicts, climate change, inequalities, debt and new technologies like artificial intelligence which have no guardrails.
The two-day summit starts Sunday, two days before the high-level meeting of world leaders begins at the sprawling UN compound in New York City.
Whether the conference takes even a first step toward the future remains to be seen.
“Leaders must ask themselves whether this will be yet another meeting where they simply talk about greater co-operation and consensus, or whether they will show the imagination and conviction to actually forge it,” said Agnès Callamard, the secretary-general of Amnesty International.
“If they miss this opportunity, I shudder to think of the consequences. Our collective future is at stake.”
More than 130 presidents, prime ministers and monarchs are slated to speak along with dozens of ministers, and the issues at the summit are expected to dominate their speeches and private meetings, especially the wars in Gaza, Ukraine and Sudan and the growing possibility of a wider Mideast war.
“There is going to be a rather obvious gap between the Summit of the Future, with its focus on expanding international co-operation, and the reality that the UN is failing in Gaza, Ukraine and Sudan,” said Richard Gowan, UN director for the International Crisis Group.
“Those three wars will be top topics of attention for most of the week.”
US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield says the US focus at the UN meetings will be on ending “the scourge of war”.
Last September, the war in Ukraine and its president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, took centre stage at the global gathering.
But as the first anniversary of Hamas’ deadly attack in southern Israel approaches on October 7, the spotlight is certain to be on the war in Gaza and escalating violence across the Israeli-Lebanon border, which is now threatening to spread to the wider Middle East.
By: Edith M. Lederer/Associated Press
