President Biden is scheduled to address the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday morning, bringing together leaders and representatives from 134 countries in New York City, but notably absent will be the heads of some of the authoritarian nations embroiled in international conflicts around the world.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will not be attending, while Iranian President Masoud Pezechkian will not be attending. Trump is scheduled to speak on Tuesday despite international backlash over Iran's support for terrorism, interference in November's U.S. presidential election and assassination threats against U.S. politicians, including former President Donald Trump.
“We don't want war… we want to live in peace,” Pezeshkian told reporters in New York, according to reports on Monday.
But Biden's comments are not expected to be taken at face value, with White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre saying on Monday that Biden, speaking before the Iranian president, would “rally together global action to address the world's most pressing challenges.”
Secretary of State Antony Blinken (center) meets with U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield before the start of the Security Council meeting at U.N. Headquarters in New York City, Oct. 24, 2023. (Timothy A. Clary/AFP via Getty Images)
Biden is set to deliver his final address to the United Nations as president and is expected to outline his administration's priorities and vision for the organization.
Washington plans to highlight three key areas at this week's events, including continued efforts to “end the scourge of war” as wars rage and with about a quarter of the world's population living in “conflict-affected areas,” according to US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield.
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The US also plans to encourage other member states to step up support for humanitarian workers and to work to create a more “inclusive and effective international system” by adding two permanent seats for African countries and one rotating seat for small island developing states to the UN Security Council (UNSC).
But as the Biden administration seeks to bring reforms to the world body, with some authoritarian leaders conspicuously absent, one U.N. expert expressed concern that the UN is avoiding today's threats by holding a conference focused on tomorrow's vague concerns.
President Biden spoke at the 78th United Nations General Assembly on September 19, 2023, at United Nations Headquarters in New York City. (Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images)
“I wish [there was] “It's not a 'Future Summit,' it's a 'Present Summit,' because the future gives us a chance to be ambiguous,” Hugh Duggan, who served as the U.S. representative to the United Nations and senior adviser to 11 U.N. ambassadors from 1989 to 2015, told Fox News Digital about the “Future Summit” event that took place over the weekend.
“There will be a lot of hyperbole this week,” he added. “If this is the 'summit of now,' it will mean accountability now, whether we are effective now, whether the UN is efficient now.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and President Biden walk to the Oval Office on September 21, 2023. (Drew Ungerer/Getty Images)
Thomas-Greenfield called for “hope” in her speech on Friday, but a gloomy mood hung ahead of the summit amid a string of major international conflicts with no end in sight, including Russia's war in Ukraine, Israel's fight against the Iranian-backed Hamas and Hezbollah, the gang takeover of Haiti and civil wars in Sudan and Myanmar.
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U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told reporters last week that the Future Summit, a challenge he called on countries to prepare for last year, was “born out of the harsh reality that global challenges are moving faster than our ability to solve them.”
Guterres highlighted “uncontrollable geopolitical divisions” and “runaway” conflicts, climate change, and the uncertain future path of how to deal with artificial intelligence – a major issue that has sparked a competition, primarily between the US and China, over how to develop and utilize artificial intelligence in multiple areas, including military integration.
The Security Council will meet on August 28, 2024 at UN Headquarters in New York City. (Yuki Iwamura/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“Today's global institutions and frameworks are woefully inadequate to address these complex, existential challenges,” he said, “and this is not surprising: they were born in a bygone era, for a bygone world.”
“We cannot create a future that is fit for our grandchildren with a system built for our grandparents,” he warned, a tone expected to continue throughout the summit.
But Dugan again raised the issue of accountability, questioning whether it is easier for the UN chief to call for big changes at the UN than to assess the continuing mismanagement of spending, bureaucracy and internal politics within the organisation.
This year's General Assembly will be attended by 134 nations, but the leaders of two of the five permanent members will be absent: Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin will send representatives in their place, a move that has become increasingly common in recent years.
President Biden is scheduled to deliver his final address to the United Nations General Assembly as president on Tuesday. (Reuters/Kevin Lamarque)
Dagan, who served on the National Security Council in charge of international organizations during the Trump administration, said the practice allows autocratic leaders to avoid having to answer tough questions, mainly from Western countries and their regional allies, but it also signals “they don't mind being disrespected.”
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Asked what this means for the current state of the UN and its legitimacy, especially in a UN Security Council that has become sharply divided between the US, UK and France on the one hand and Russia and China on the other in the wake of Putin's invasion of Ukraine, Dugan said he believes the UN Security Council continues to have an important place in the international community.
“I've always thought that this idea has merit,” he said. “It's easy to say it's not legitimate because we can't agree on it or we haven't reached the conclusion that we want, but I don't think that's the case.”
“The real test of the UN is its ability to keep people gathered around the table,” Dugan continued, “even if the heads of state are not at that table, the delegations know it's too dangerous not to be at the table.”
