Leaders from around the world meet at the UN this week to give their account

The war in Ukraine, the escalation of tensions in the Middle East and the crisis in Venezuela are among the topics to be discussed

September 22 () –

The United Nations General Assembly will once again serve as the center of global geopolitics this week, a stage where some of the main leaders will parade to outline their views on current issues, from the wars in Ukraine and the Gaza Strip to climate change, as well as the eternal demands for reform of the UN system.

The general debate is held annually, at the beginning of each session. Technically, it is not a debate, but a series of speeches in which all 193 UN member states are entitled to participate, since the General Assembly, unlike the Security Council, allows them all to participate. Observer states such as the Vatican and Palestine, as well as the European Union, can also participate.

This type of meeting was held for the first time in 1946 and the first speakers were the UN Secretary General and the President of the Assembly. By country, since the tenth edition, Brazil has spoken first – according to the UN Protocol Services, initially no country wanted to break the ice, but Brazil did so on several occasions and has ended up consolidating its position.

The United States, as host country, is next to take the podium, and from there the rest of the countries speak based on the level of their delegations – those participating with their respective heads of state have the right to speak first – and based on other parameters such as geographical balance or the preferences raised.

For the 2024 edition, the provisional list includes Turkey as the third speaker, followed by Jordan, Guatemala, Switzerland, Colombia, Qatar and South Africa. Spain will speak on the morning of the fourth day, on Friday, while Kiribati will close the order of interventions on September 30.

There is no strict rule on speech length, but political leaders are informally encouraged to limit themselves to 15 minutes and speakers are subtly notified when the time is up by a flashing red light. The record is still held by former Cuban President Fidel Castro, who spoke for 269 minutes in 1960.

MEETINGS ON THE SIDELINES

The UN often takes advantage of the influx of international leaders to organise parallel forums, as is the case this year with the Future Summit that will precede the debates in the Assembly. It also serves as an opportunity for participants to organise meetings on the sidelines, either bilaterally or multilaterally, if the topic at hand is of common interest.

The 2024 general debate will be the first since the outbreak of the conflict in the Gaza Strip, as the Hamas attacks took place on 7 October 2023, so tensions in the Middle East will likely also be on the agenda of the General Assembly, as will the conflict that began in February 2022 between Ukraine and Russia due to the invasion ordered by Vladimir Putin.

Among those who have already confirmed their attendance in New York is, in fact, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who will travel with a new peace proposal under his arm to personally explain it to his American counterpart, Joe Biden. Zelensky has also met with the main candidates in the November elections, Kamala Harris and Donald Trump.

Another crisis that is expected to be at the forefront of the meetings is that of Venezuela, which will initially be represented by its foreign minister, Yván Gil. The debate sparked by the presidential elections on July 28 has damaged the image of Nicolás Maduro’s regime and has become one of the main causes of concern throughout Latin America.