AFP – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will take the United Nations podium for the first time on Tuesday as world leaders gather at the seventy-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly, to highlight the war that has divided this international body.
Zelensky is expected to use his speech, which he will deliver from the United Nations podium, to condemn Russia for its invasion, which has been ongoing since February 2022.
He is also scheduled to meet with leaders with different views, including Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who has previously said that Ukraine also bears responsibility for the war, criticizing the billions of dollars in military aid provided to Kiev.
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On Wednesday, Zelensky will also participate in a special session on Ukraine in the Security Council, in which Russia is a permanent member and therefore has veto power over any binding measures.
In response to a question about this meeting during his visit to a New York hospital treating Ukrainian soldiers, Zelensky said that the United Nations still provides “a place for Russian terrorists.”
Zelensky said in a previous interview with CBS News that Russian President Vladimir Putin, who will be absent from the United Nations meeting, is “a second Hitler.”
He added that the world must “decide whether we want to put an end to Putin, or if we want to start a world war.”
Russia faced severe criticism in the United Nations General Assembly over its invasion of Ukraine, but the focus on the war also sparked criticism from developing countries who considered the conflict a distraction from other pressing priorities.
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres chose to devote the beginning of the week to development, and many countries pledged on Monday to continue trying to achieve the difficult goals supported by the United Nations to eradicate poverty by 2030.
Zelensky is also scheduled to meet at the United Nations with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who have maintained a good relationship with Russia, in addition to German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
For his part, Erdogan, who will also deliver a speech before the General Assembly on Tuesday, seeks to revive the grain agreement that allows the export of Ukrainian grain through the Black Sea, supported by the United Nations, and which Russia suspended.
Later, Zelensky will move to Washington with Biden to visit the White House.
Gathering of opponents
On the other hand, it is not expected that US President Joe Biden and Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi will meet during this summit.
The Iranian President went to the United Nations while Iran and the United States completed the exchange of five prisoners each, after Washington released six billion dollars in Iranian oil revenues that had been frozen in South Korea.
The Biden administration, which is facing internal criticism because of the agreement with the arch enemy of the United States, made it clear that it does not see the prisoner exchange process as a solution between the two countries.
But the United Nations General Assembly was the scene of a diplomatic meeting between the United States and China.
On Monday, on the sidelines of the meetings, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken met with Chinese Vice President Han Zheng, in a second round of high-level talks between the two largest economies in the world in recent days.
Blinken said he supports “open communications” on differences with China, while Han stated that the world needs “sound and stable relations between the United States and China.”
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2023-09-19 12:21:24
