UNGA Beyond the Conflicts

Welcome back to the fourth and penultimate UNGA edition of Foreign Policy’s Situation Report from Turtle Bay, where the deluge of diplomacy has been supplemented by an actual downpour. John had the foresight to carry an umbrella. Rishi did not.

Here’s what’s on tap for the day: The wider UNGA agenda beyond Ukraine and Gaza, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s circuitous flight to the U.N., and a conversation on Africa’s role in U.S.-China competition with Nigeria’s chief technology officer.

UNGA Flexes Its Muscles…Kind Of

UNGA 80 has brought plenty of reminders of where the multilateral institution is falling short—particularly when it comes to stopping the wars in Ukraine, the Middle East, and beyond. U.S. President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky both criticized U.N. inaction in their UNGA speeches, with Trump saying the body only issues “empty words” and Zelensky decrying “just statements and statements.”

Still, there are other realms where the U.N.’s global convening power remains hard to rival.

Climate action. Despite Trump spending much of his speech calling climate change a “con job” and slamming renewable energy, the U.N. Climate Summit on Wednesday saw attendance from 121 members including the European Union, most of whom pledged to significantly reduce their carbon footprints. That includes China, the world’s largest emitter, which set a target of reducing its greenhouse gas emissions by 7 percent to 10 percent by 2035.

“Not enough of them are committing to their climate plans yet, but the process is going on and will go on. And clean energy is accelerating and will accelerate,” Mary Robinson, the former president of Ireland and former U.N. high commissioner for human rights, told SitRep.

Nuclear proliferation. Concerns over nuclear weapons have been fresh on the minds of many member states at UNGA this week due to the war in Ukraine and ongoing tensions between the West and Iran.

Emma Belcher, the president of Ploughshares, an organization that works to reduce the threat of nuclear weapons, told SitRep that issues such as nuclear proliferation need to be seen as interconnected with other global challenges. That is one of the primary goals of a new women-led initiative that Belcher and Robinson are spearheading that was launched this week on the sidelines of UNGA.

“Yes, these issues came up—climate, nuclear weapons, [and] Gaza” during UNGA, Belcher said, but “we need to do a better job of bringing the discussions together and recognizing how each of these issues exacerbate each other.”

Artificial intelligence. After spending Monday discussing Russia’s behavior in Europe and Tuesday discussing the Middle East and Palestine, the U.N. Security Council spent two consecutive meetings discussing the security risks of artificial intelligence. “Humanity’s fate cannot be left to an algorithm,” U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said on Wednesday, calling for a ban on lethal autonomous weapons and advocating “coherent global regulatory frameworks” for the technology.

Humanitarian aid. The dire humanitarian situation in Gaza has been a major focus at UNGA all week, particularly amid Israel’s offensive in Gaza City. World leaders and diplomats have repeatedly used the gathering to call for a cease-fire and unrestricted access to humanitarian assistance. In this sense, UNGA has provided an important forum for dialogue on this pressing issue. But aid groups are still emphasizing that Gazans need more than words.

Chris Lockyear, the secretary-general of Médecins Sans Frontières, told SitRep that “the situation on the ground needs to change quickly and massively.”

Lockyear called on countries to use all the leverage they have to “force a cease-fire” and “ensure that there is a massive flood of aid into Gaza.” Statements made about Gaza at UNGA are “all well and good, but they don’t mean anything unless they’re translated into tangible action on the ground—and right now, immediately,” he said.

Challenging U.S. dominance. Although other multilateral gatherings such as NATO’s annual summit in The Hague earlier this year focused on appeasing Trump, the U.N. in many respects has shown an inclination to forge ahead without him.

Robinson said she’s observed a “fear factor” in the international community under Trump 2.0 because he’s a “bully,” and she called for countries to “stand up to him.”

“There is no way you can pacify a bully. You actually feed the beast in him to be more aggressive,” she said. But Robinson also emphasized that “America is actually being diminished” by Trump’s bullying, which has led Europe to move away from the United States and new alliances to form.

On the Button

What should be high on your radar, if it isn’t already.

Bibi’s awkward flight path. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to speak at UNGA on Friday. But flight-tracking data reviewed by various media outlets showed that his plane took a different route to the United States than normal—flying the length of the Mediterranean and over the Strait of Gibraltar rather than directly over Europe.

The Israeli government has not given an official reason for this, but some reports suggest it was to avoid the airspace of countries that are International Criminal Court (ICC) members and are obliged to arrest him for alleged war crimes. The United States, like Israel, is not an ICC member.

Snapshot

A virtual address from Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to the United Nations General Assembly can be seen displayed on two large screens as people in the assembly hall look on.

Hot Mic

SitRep sat down with Kashifu Abdullahi, Nigeria’s chief tech and information officer, on the sidelines of UNGA for a conversation about how Africa’s largest economy is navigating U.S.-China technology competition. The conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.

FP: How do you balance U.S. and Chinese tech?

KA: We are agnostic. We want the best for Nigeria, so we look at what the West and the East are bringing to see how we can build the best for ourselves. We don’t want to be a shop for just one geopolitical region when it comes to the infrastructure.

FP: What about concerns around security and digital sovereignty?

KA: That’s why we want to be at the center and in the conversation, because sovereignty is about us—not about the Americans or the Chinese. Whoever is coming needs to work with our terms.

FP: How do you see the U.S.-China AI race as a country in the middle of it? Is there a clear winner?

KA: I don’t follow much of the political talk, but for us the most important thing is how we can benefit. We don’t care who wins the race, but are we going to be part of it? Whoever is ready to work with us, we should work with them.

What We’re Watching on Friday

9 a.m. Netanyahu is scheduled to speak at UNGA, followed immediately by Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Chinese Premier Li Qiang.

10 a.m. and 3 p.m. The U.N. hosts a high-level plenary meeting to commemorate and promote the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons.

Quote of the Week

“He knows about rigged elections better than anybody.”

—Trump, speaking to reporters, referring to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as they met at the White House on Thursday. It’s unclear if Trump was suggesting that Erdogan has been involved in election rigging in Turkey. The State Department referred SitRep to the White House when contacted about this. The White House did not respond to a request for comment.