Climate change, Iranian sanctions and rising global poverty will also be featured at the annual conference of world leaders in New York this week.
The global food crisis, exacerbated by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the war, will be a focus as world leaders meet at the United Nations in New York this week.
“It would be naive to think that we are close to the possibility of a peace deal,” said UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Saturday ahead of a high-level meeting of 193 member states that begins Tuesday.
“The chances of a peace deal are minimal at this point.”
The geopolitical divisions reinforced by the war seven months ago could fully manifest as the US and its Western allies compete with Russia for diplomatic clout.
To the youth of the world I say:
You are the strongest voice for change and for world leaders to call for peace, not war.
global leader #UNGAI pledge to encourage young people to work together for a more peaceful and tolerant world. pic.twitter.com/TvXTsFXfUm
— Antonio Guterres (@antonioguterres) September 16, 2022
Additionally, US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas Greenfield said she had no plans to meet with Russian diplomats.
“They have not shown any interest in diplomacy. What they are interested in is continuing to provoke this one-sided war against Ukraine,” said Thomas Greenfield.
She added that “the rest of the world cannot be ignored” while the war in Ukraine is discussed.
The geopolitical rift is “at least the biggest since the Cold War” and “paralyzes the global response to the dramatic challenges we face,” Guterres said, adding that conflict, climate, poverty, It highlighted hunger and inequality.
“Great tension”
Russia and Ukraine are major grain and fertilizer exporters, and the United Nations blames the war for food crises already exacerbated by climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic.
Alongside UN meetings, the United States will co-host a food security summit with the European Union and African Union, a COVID-19 Global Action Plan conference, and a replenishment conference for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS and Tuberculosis. and malaria.
Richard Gowan, UN director of the International Crisis Group, said: “Underlying many of these meetings will be enormous tensions between Western powers and representatives of the global South in particular.
“There is still a lot of discomfort around issues such as COVID vaccine deployment, climate change funding and current food prices. said Gowan.
Less than a week after the February 24 invasion of Ukraine, nearly three-quarters of the UNGA reprimanded Moscow and demanded it withdraw its troops, Russia is slowly easing its international isolation.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, US Foreign Minister Antony Blinken and French President Emmanuel Macron have all visited African countries in the past few months to vie for influence. Africa has been hit hard by a famine expected to be declared in Somalia within the next few months.
Macron intends to use his two-day visit to New York to lobby countries that have remained neutral in the war to win over the West, French officials said, adding that India , the Gulf States, Africa and some states focused on Latin America.
face-to-face attendance
For the past two years, leaders have been allowed to submit video statements due to pandemic restrictions, but this year they have to travel to New York City to speak in the UNGA conference room.Russian President Vladimir Putin And Chinese President Xi Jinping has sent a foreign minister.
However, the UN General Assembly agreed to allow Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to send a pre-recorded video statement. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleva will be present.
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi also visited New York. While Tehran and Washington are unlikely to overcome the deadlock to salvage the 2015 nuclear deal anytime soon, Iran has used the meeting to roll the diplomatic ball by reiterating its willingness to reach a sustainable deal. will continue.
