“We were going to celebrate the 75th anniversary. Things evolved,” said Volkan Bozkir, president of Turkey, the next president of the upcoming UN General Assembly.
“A Different Lack of Drama”
On the first day – Tuesday – almost all permanent members of the UN Security Council speak: US President Donald Trump; Chinese President Xi Jinping; Russian President Vladimir Putin, who rarely speaks at the UN; French President Emanuel Macron and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani all address the assembly hall during each other’s hours.
U.S. In the weeks leading up to the presidential election, there were high expectations of what President Trump would personally say about Iran, China, or even BE Biden. But his tapped statement from the White House is unlikely to get it out of the script. Without them, “there would be a distinct lack of drama,” said Richard Goa, UN director of the International Crisis Group.
Thanks to the convenience of calling, there is a silver lining: the UN can claim the most heads of state and government leaders speaking this year – 170 in all. Ambassador Christoph Huygen, as evidence of the participation, says that “the notion of multilateralism has not lost its appeal year after year in the UN, even if the UN is not perfect.”
But who will see and hear? In special years, attendance in the Assembly Hall has dwindled since the departure of the American president and other powerful dignitaries – the foreign minister is saddened to have stopped speaking at 9pm on Saturday night. Back home In this virtual world, no world leader can be assured that anyone is coming inside.
“I really doubt that presidents, prime ministers are sitting at home with buckets of popcorn and watching their counterparts,” says Govan.
Another notable absence this year in a system that promises to sustain gender equality: women. Not until a woman takes her turn to become the 51st head of state or government in the speakers roster, in this case Slovak President Zuzana ut Putovi.
Diplomacy without diplomats
Diplomacy will be particularly urgent this year, as countries around the world wrestle with big differences on issues ranging from climate change to the Middle East.
UN Secretary-General Guterres said: “Diplomacy requires personal contact to be effective. It usually meets with hundreds of visiting UNGA officials.
Face-to-face meetings have been powerful in recent years, with dozens of world leaders, dubbed ‘diplomatic motion dating’, hustling from handshakes to cocktail parties; Looking for funding from Wall Street bankers; And sometimes making a deal that can really promote a small piece of peace somewhere. Plans for an Iran nuclear deal at the UNGA gained momentum during the Obama administration.
In a typical year of elbow-rubbing at the UNGA, “You have clear discussions and you know people – now we can’t meet face to face,” lamented Rosemary DiCarlo, the UN’s top political official.
New York rest restaurant rentals and store owners are already dealing with the effects of the virus, big-spending leaders and their delegations will also miss the waves. Still, some locals are thrilled.
Many New Yorkers have complained for decades about limousine parades and security stabilization that disrupts public transportation and backs up traffic in Manhattan. Acting United Kingdom Ambassador Jonathan Allen said the people of New York would be happy to have their streets back for two weeks.
And some long-serving U.N. Diplomats and staff also confess that they are getting rid of the high-level weekend 20-hour boring captivity that traditionally keeps their president or prime minister with a delegation of entertainment or a huge trip.
Gift bag with mask and hand sanitizer
The iconic assembly hall will not be completely empty this week – one diplomat per country will be allowed to deliver a video tap speech of their leader, speaking from their socially-spaced seats instead of the rostrum.
“We have to act this way until the situation is resolved,” said Nicolas de Rivera, the French ambassador to the United Nations.
Countries were requested to send videos at least four days before the speech. Running time request including speech and introduction: 15 minutes. Somewhere, record-holding speechmakers Fidel Castro and Moammar Gaddafi are on fire.
Additional hand sanitizers will be arranged in the wings of the room. Malta is donating a giftbag with a mask and sanitizer outside the hall.
UN spokesman Stephen Dujarric said the general assembly is expected to have about 2,100 people in the standing room assembly hall, which usually holds 2,500 people a week.
On the one hand, most virtual meetings will also be held on issues including climate change, biodiversity and Lebanon.
It’s totally transformative at a symbolic time. In 1945, the original members of the United Nations lit up the diplomatic history by signing the famous charter of the latest organization in San Francisco.
Images of fast-forward and run-ups who would have had the organization’s gala 75th anniversary could not have been more ominous: the smoke from wildfires clouded the air in San Francisco, while in New York, the big “celebration” of the General Assembly would be practically empty.
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