Speeches by world leaders kick off today (NYT) at the UN General Assembly (UNGA) in New York City, though several addresses will be made virtually due to the pandemic. The debate is expected to focus on boosting COVID-19 vaccination rates globally and fighting climate change, as well as emphasize the geopolitical tensions (CNN) that undermine those goals.
U.S. President Joe Biden, Chinese President Xi Jinping, and Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi are due to speak today, Xi and Raisi via prerecorded video. French President Emmanuel Macron opted to send his foreign minister in the wake of tensions over a recently announced alliance between the United States, Australia, and the United Kingdom (UK). Talks about Iran’s possible reentry into the 2015 nuclear deal are set to occur on the summit’s sidelines (Reuters).
Analysis
“[Biden] faces a tricky, dual challenge. He must convince his global audience that America’s commitment to multilateralism will endure, while persuading his domestic audience that the United Nations is up to the task of addressing an unprecedented confluence of global crises.
Stewart M. Patrick writes for the Internationalist blog.
“The possibility that the visiting delegations might themselves pose a health threat will be an important reminder that while nations like the United States and major European powers have pushed ahead with vaccinating tens of millions of their people, many smaller, poorer nations, which lack pharmaceutical industries, have not been able to secure or make their own vaccines,” CNN’s Stephen Collinson writes.
