The meetings of the UN General Assembly began this Tuesday with some major absences such as that of the presidents of China and France, Xi Jinping and Emmanuel Macron, and with the star of the meeting, the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, addressing the in-person attendees. Last year, the president could not attend due to the situation in his country, and limited himself to speaking by video.
The Ukrainian president will speak on a day that, indirectly, is marked by Ukraine. Spaniard Pedro Sánchez speaks tomorrow night, local time (early morning on Thursday in Spain).
The first leader to speak was, as has been customary since the time when no one wanted to occupy that position, the Brazilian Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. His arrival at the speakers' gallery was an interesting change in the tone of the Assembly, given that his rhetoric is very different from that of his predecessor, the nationalist Jair Bolsonaro.
“Ladies and ladies, today I return as president of Brazil. And this is thanks to the victory that democracy won in my country.. “Democracy ensured that we overcame hate, misinformation and oppression.”
“Hope has once again conquered fear. Our mission is to unite Brazil and rebuild a sovereign, fair, sustainable, generous and joyful state.. Brazil has cut corners with itself, with the region and with multilateralism. “I will never tire of repeating it.”
“Brazil is back,” said Lula. “Our country has returned to make its contribution to the world's great challenges.”
After Lula, the second leader who addressed the Assembly was the president of the United States, Joe Biden (the United States is always second as it is the host country), who dedicated an important part of his speech to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Joe Biden has sought to refute the growing perception that the United States is growing tired of supporting Ukraine in that country's fight to regain its territorial integrity.. And he has chosen to launch the message the most relevant forum in the diplomatic world: the United Nations General Assembly.
“Russia believes that the world will get tired (of supporting Kiev) and will let it brutalize Ukraine without paying a price for it.”. But I ask you this: if we abandon the central principles of the UN Charter to appease an aggressor, can any other State be assured that it will be protected?” the president of the United States asked before an Assembly in which For the first time in two years, the president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, was present, who will speak about three hours later than the American president.
“Russia is standing in the way of peace,” said Biden, in one of the few moments in which the usual monotony of his tone of voice turned into a certain passion, which was reciprocated with applause from those in attendance.
Guterres
Previously, the Secretary General of the UN, Antonio Guterres, proposed at the beginning of the 78th period of sessions of the General Assembly “to renew international institutions of the 21st century” in a speech in which he warned that “democracy is under threat, authoritarianism is advancing and hate speech is gaining momentum.”
“The world has changed. Our institutions do not,” Guterres said. “We cannot effectively address problems as they are if institutions do not reflect the world as it is.”. Instead of solving problems, they risk becoming part of the problem.”. For this reason, he added, “the time has come to renew international institutions based on the reality of the 21st century.”. This means reforming the Security Council to reflect today's reality. “Reform international financial institutions so that they truly support developing countries.”
USA
Returning to Biden, his words come when the general perception in Washington is that his Government wants to get rid of the war. August was the month in which the US sent the least weapons to kyiv since almost the beginning of the conflict. US M1 Abrams tanks promised in January still have not arrived in Ukraine. Biden has answered with a simple “no” on multiple occasions to the delivery of long-range ATACMS missiles that Ukraine has been asking for for more than a year.
Around 30 Republican congressmen, and most of the Republican candidates for the elections – including the one who seems to be the clear winner of the party's primaries, Donald Trump – sympathize with Vladimir Putin. The former US president himself expressed his opinion on Sunday in a televised interview that Ukraine should hand over parts of its territory to Russia.. On Monday, the chief of the United States General Staff, Mark Milley, said in an interview with the political information website The Hill that “expelling all the Russians is setting the bar very high.”. However, as much as Washington wants some kind of negotiated solution, the Biden administration also knows that Putin will not abandon the war until, at the earliest, after the 2024 US presidential election.
Biden's words have special meaning, because the Republican inability to reach an agreement on anything threatens to force the closure of the US Public Administration next week and, with it, postpone the approval of a new aid package for 24,000 million US dollars for Ukraine. It is a package that represents half of the last one, and that also arrives when Washington fears that Russia will launch a massive air offensive this winter to try to surrender the Ukrainians due to the cold.. Therefore, after speaking in New York, Zelensky goes to Washington to meet with Biden and the Democratic and Republican leaders of Congress and try to convince them that the reconquest of their country is progressing at a good pace, which justifies them having more weapons. .
Biden's speech was, in general, predictable. In the first part of his speech, the head of State and the American Government seemed to be reading an endless list of promises, objectives and threats, with a lack of passion that seems to be a characteristic of leaders who address the Assembly of the UN, and that makes the antics of Moammar Gaddafi or Hugo Chávez strange. It lasted 28 minutes, but only when they were two thirds of that time did Ukraine get in. It was the key moment. And in a certain sense the logical corollary – although following Biden's rhetorical meanderings sometimes defies logic – of a speech focused on the idea of multilateralism and international cooperation.
In some ways, the president of the United States followed the line of his predecessor on the speakers' platform, the Brazilian Lula da Silva, who, in stark contrast to the man who governed Brazil until last year, said “we have recovered the universalism of our foreign policy”. Biden defended the multilateral order, and once again emphasized the conciliatory tone that his Government has adopted in relation to China as the elections approach.. “We seek to manage the competition responsibly,” he said in relation to Beijing. Biden once again repeated the mantra of “de-risking” as his administration's goal, instead of “de-coupling,” reformed the United States' commitment to a two-state solution for the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, and described the fact that the LGTBQ community “is being persecuted” as an attack “on our humanity.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky appeared for the first time before the United Nations General Assembly after eight in the afternoon (Spanish time) and was received with warm applause from the leaders present.. Previously, he had participated in the annual event virtually.
The president began his speech by talking about the push toward nuclear disarmament during World War II, a strategy he described as good “but it should not be the only strategy.”. He claimed that Ukraine gave up its nuclear arsenal, but then the world “decided that Russia should become the guardian of such power.”
“History shows that it was Russia that deserved nuclear disarmament in the 1990s,” he said.. “Terrorists have no right to possess nuclear weapons,” he added.
Zelensky accused Russia of committing genocide by kidnapping thousands of Ukrainian children and indoctrinating them against their own country.. “We are trying to bring the children back home, but time is passing. What will happen to them? “These children in Russia are taught to hate Ukraine, and all ties with their families are broken, and this is clearly genocide,” he said.
He also denounced Russian blackmail with food shortages on the world market in exchange for the recognition of their invaded territories in Ukraine.. “Russia is using food prices as weapons. “The impact extends from the Atlantic coast of Africa to Southeast Asia,” he declared.
In this regard, Zelensky called on countries to support Ukraine in launching a temporary maritime export corridor from its borders to ensure that its food products are available on the global market, after Moscow broke the grain export through the Black Sea sponsored by the United Nations.