At least on the roads along the East River, this time it will be the same as it used to be. After representatives of the 193 member states must travel in person to New York again this year after nearly three years of the Crown if they are to take part in the 77th general debate of the United Nations, which begins on Tuesday, the black limousines will take to be in close again. succession to the headquarters of the United Nations Plaza Push up of the United Nations. Many streets in Manhattan are therefore closed and the traffic chaos that the local media has been warning of for days is unlikely to be resolved for many hours.
Aside from the expected traffic jams around the UN headquarters, the general assembly will be different than before. The Russian invasion of Ukraine seven months ago not only shattered the European security order, but the largest geopolitical crisis since World War II has also disrupted the energy and food markets. Gas and oil prices have reached record highs and countries in the global South are worried about supply shortages and famine.
However, a diplomatic rapprochement between Russia and the West is not foreseeable in New York. The Russian military may have lost momentum after the disastrous defeat in Kharkiv, but nothing has changed in the goals of warlord Vladimir Putin. The special military operation, as we can still call only the war in Russia, does not need any adjustment, underlined a few days ago the Russian president at the top of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.
As things currently stand, there shouldn’t be even a brief direct exchange between Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and a high-ranking Western representative on the fringes of the General Assembly. Lavrov, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Ukrainian diplomacy chief Dmytro Kuleba will only meet in the formal framework of a UN Security Council meeting at ministerial level.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres warns against exaggerated hopes. “It would be naive to think that we are close to the possibility of a peace agreement,” the Portuguese recently said. “In fact, the chances of this happening are minimal.”
Lobby behind the scenes
However, both the Kremlin and the Western government attach great importance to the meeting. Since seven months after the Russian attack was condemned with a vote by nearly three-quarters of UN members, Moscow now sees not only the opportunity to further break the initially strong international isolation. Russia also hopes to be able to influence the Ukrainian war narrative in its favor in New York. Moscow has already been preparing for this in recent months. Lavrov has visited numerous countries in Africa, where the distant war is making itself felt mainly due to the high prices of bread, and has blamed Western sanctions for the crisis in the food market.
Like Russia, however, the West also wants to involve states in New York that have so far remained largely neutral. French President Emmanuel Macron, who also recently visited several African countries, wants to use his two-day stay on the East River primarily to lobby behind the scenes. According to the Elysee Palace, Macron wants to seek talks with representatives from India, Africa and the Gulf region.
The Austrian representatives will also have numerous bilateral meetings in New York. Federal President Alexander Van der Bellen, Chancellor Karl Nehammer and Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg will meet not only UN Secretary General Guterres, but also heads of state whose countries play an important role as mediators or energy producers.
Van der Bellen meets Erdogan
Of particular importance is the meeting between Van der Bellen and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, scheduled for Wednesday. Bilaterally, the atmosphere between Vienna and Ankara has been freezing cold for a long time, but in recent months contacts at the government level have intensified. In New York, Nehammer wants to meet Pakistani Prime Minister Shebaz Sharif, Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi and Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, among others. Talks with his counterparts in Armenia, Azerbaijan and India are on the agenda for Schallenberg.(r)
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