UNITED NATIONS — They gathered at the United Nations surrounded by disturbing warnings of an escalating conflict that could engulf the Middle East and undermine international relations based on “multilateralism” – countries working together and sharing power. A week later, world leaders went home with the prospect of a wider war that would intensify and global divisions would take center stage, not just in the Middle East but elsewhere.
No major breakthroughs were expected during the public and private meetings at the annual meeting of presidents, prime ministers and other leaders of the UN General Assembly. That is rarely the case. But this year has been particularly grim, with no end in sight to the three major conflicts in Gaza, Ukraine and Sudan, and to escalating Israeli military action in Lebanon.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres’ warning that multilateralism must be brought back “from the edge” This added to the gloom, along with speech after speech condemning failures to tackle climate change and growing inequality between rich and poor countries, warning of artificial intelligence without guardrails and the potential of lethal weapons without human control.
General Assembly President Philémon Yang concluded the weeklong high-level meeting Monday afternoon, calling it “particularly tumultuous” and noting the “violent conflicts” raging.
“This is unfortunately not an exhaustive list of the crises and conflicts facing United Nations Member States,” he lamented.
There was no disagreement that multilateralism is broken, that this founding principle of the United Nations – founded in 1945 on the ashes of the Second World War – urgently needs to be revived to meet the challenges facing the world today is confronted.
One example: at the exact hour on Friday when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the General Assembly that his country sincerely wants peace – a goal emphasized by virtually every leader – Israeli warplanes bombed areas around Beirut in a deadly barrage.
In recent days, Yang said, the world has seen an “extremely dramatic escalation” between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon, threatening war across the Middle East. “Right now, peace in the Middle East is hanging on a shoestring,” he warned.
U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said this year’s meeting of leaders — with its major speeches known in U.N. parlance as the “general debate” — took place at “a very serious and very intense time.”
“The world does not stop for the general debate,” he told reporters on Monday. “So we were very focused on what member states were saying, but we remain very focused on what is happening in the world outside. building.”
There was one positive development that was welcomed by Secretary General Antonio Guterres and many leaders: the adoption of a ‘Pact for the Future’ at a summit just before world leaders began their speeches to the General Assembly. The 42-page blueprint aims to bring together the 193 UN member states to tackle today’s challenges, from climate change and artificial intelligence to escalating conflict and rising inequality and poverty.
It challenges leaders of large and small countries, rich and poor, to translate promises into action. Whether that happens remains to be seen. Yang, the Assembly speaker, said his office has already launched “an awareness campaign” to boost implementation.
Illustrating the mix of woe and weary hope that seeped through the meeting, Burundian Foreign Minister Albert Shingiro on Monday denounced an international community in which “most of us act as if we are alone in the world, as if others do not exist ‘. or didn’t count.”
Still, he said, the consensus on the Pact for the Future “shows that multilateralism is not dead and buried.”
From the vantage point of leaders of smaller or less powerful countries, the UN cannot change the world without changing itself. Founded with 51 member states, it now has 193 member states, and many feel included only to a certain extent.
“We must ensure that global institutions give developing countries, especially small, vulnerable countries like mine, seats at the decision-making tables,” said Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley. “Our citizens’ anger and distrust in institutions, in leaders and in multilateralism and its processes that exclude but produce much talk and little action are very real.”
Nobel Peace Prize Winner Mohammed Yunus, head of Bangladesh’s interim government said: “the times call for new attitudes, new values, new treaties, for all communities and countries.”
“I believe the world must commit to a shared vision of ‘three zeros’ that we can achieve together, aiming for zero poverty, zero unemployment and zero net carbon emissions – where a young person anywhere in the world will have opportunities to to grow, not as a job seeker but as an entrepreneur,” he told the meeting.
The global meeting heard from 190 countries – all except Brunei, Myanmar and Afghanistan. The speakers included 71 heads of state, 42 heads of government, six vice presidents and crown princes, eight deputy prime ministers, 53 ministers, three deputy ministers and seven heads of delegation. Normally the UN Security Council meets once during the high-level week, but this year the council met about six times due to global conflicts and crises.
Despite all the alarm, the leaders here are politicians, and many made a point of at least somewhat appealing to optimism. Perhaps no one has emphasized it more than US President Joe Biden, give his last speech at the annual meeting after more than half a century in public life.
He noted that humanity had put an end to some of the seemingly intractable threats, conflicts and injustices that plagued the world when he was elected senator in 1972, from the Cold War to apartheid in South Africa.
“It can be better,” Biden said. “We must never forget that.”
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Edith M. Lederer, chief UN correspondent for The Associated Press, has covered international affairs for more than half a century. She and Jennifer Peltz represent the UN General Assembly for AP every year. See more of AP’s coverage of the General Assembly at https://apnews.com/hub/united-nations
