This week at the UN

Ever wondered what the diplomacy equivalent of Disneyland would be? Oh, okay. Well just in case you change your mind, the answer is the UN General Assembly.

Want proof? They both have branded cupcakes. 

The annual ‘High-Level Week’ is wrapping up, with 87 heads of state, two vice presidents, one crown prince, 28 heads of government, three deputy PMs and 13 ministers all taking the stage in New York to share a few thoughts on where our world is headed.

So here are some of the most intriguing quotes from the proceedings:

1. “We’re witnessing an alarming escalation of geopolitical disputes and strategic rivalries.” – 🇧🇷 Brazilian President Lula da Silva

Thank you Sherlock. We’ve been saying this for a while now, and kinda left our diplomatic careers and founded an entire media company to keep saying it. But it probably sounds more consequential coming from Lula. Distrust is on the rise and governments are pulling up the drawbridge. 

Finance types are waking up, too: in a recent survey, both central banks and sovereign wealth funds listed geopolitics as their primary risk factor, overtaking inflation.

Anyway, Lula went on to note that “2023 holds the sad record for the highest number of conflicts since the Second World War”, before lamenting ballooning defence budgets worldwide and a global shift towards a ‘might is right’ doctrine.

2. “I call for an immediate ceasefire between Lebanese Hezbollah and Israel.” – 🇬🇧 UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy

We’re cheating a little here since Lammy actually made his appeal during Wednesday’s Security Council meeting, though he went on to note that “we talk of the risk of full-scale regional war but the truth is we are already witnessing conflict on multiple fronts.” 

The US, France and others are all now pushing for a 21-day Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire, but neither side is budging. Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu told journalists yesterday that Israel will “not stop” targeting what it says are Hezbollah sites across Lebanon.

3. “There may well be no greater test of our leadership than how we deal with AI” – 🇺🇸 US President Joe Biden

President Biden’s speech was among the first on Tuesday morning and it was a bit of a horizon scan, which makes sense for a superpower with interests just about everywhere: the Russo-Ukraine war, the Sudanese civil war, the Israel-Hamas war, and beyond.

But interestingly, he dedicated serious airtime to concerns around artificial intelligence, building on last year’s passing mention. What changed? Well he (like many others) has now seen the latest Mission Impossiblemovie, which did an eerily good job of warning the world about where this could all head. Plus AI tech has continued to develop as the stakes keep rising. 

So Biden stressed the need to foster more collaboration to regulate the new tech, and to prevent AI from being used “to give dictators more powerful shackles on the human spirit.”

4. “When the aggressor exercises veto power, the UN is powerless.” – 🇺🇦 Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky 

As we just flagged, there’s now more open frustration towards the UN on display. In his speech, the Ukrainian president took aim at the fact that Russia can invade its democratic neighbour and then use its own veto power to block any meaningful UN response.

French President Macron echoed a similar sentiment in his 15-minute slot, and suggested an amendment to “limit the right to a veto in case of mass crimes.” That’s kinda remarkable when you remember France is one of the five countries with a Security Council veto.

But realistically, there’s nothing to suggest the others (the US, UK, China and Russia) would consider limiting their own influence over the UN’s highest executive body.

5. “Sea levels have risen, and we are too late to prevent them from eating away at our shores. But we must also be clear: we will not be wiped off the map, nor will we go silently to our watery graves” – 🇲🇭 Marshall Islands President Hilda Heine 

Heine and her speechwriter deserve a respectful nod for that poignant if gloomy language. Climate change isn’t dominating the agenda like it used to (see above for some of the reasons why), so small island nations need ways to draw attention while they figure out how to grapple with the risk of disappearing under rising sea levels.

Their options look limited: Fiji has earmarked over 40 villages for permanent relocation, and various partners are helping finance adaptation projects. But it’s hard to beat what tiny Tuvalu recently did: it signed a treaty with Australia to start relocating its small population there, while declaring it’ll still be a sovereign country even if its nine islands and atolls disappear.

But we’ll leave you on a lighter note with one of Heine’s lines that captures the hope many countries still place in the UN as the best shot we’ve got: “For small island developing states, the UN is the coral where all the fish congregate to seek shelter. We must nourish and maintain it for ourselves and future generations.”

INTRIGUE’S TAKE

If Disneyland is the happiest place on earth, then the UN General Assembly is arguably the gloomiest this week. Not just because of what it’s actually like on the ground for the thousands of diplomats desperately trying to shepherd duelling VIPs through Manhattan (our resident meme-lord Jeremy has kindly provided illustrative memes here and here).

But also because it’s the one place where everything facing our world right now seems to congeal into an impenetrable morass of tension, disagreement, ideology, and bureaucracy. But we can’t leave you on that note, so… have a great weekend?

Also worth noting:

• Of the five UN Security Council leaders, three turned up to this year’s General Assembly: 🇫🇷 Emmanuel Macron, 🇬🇧 Keir Starmer, and 🇺🇸 Joe Biden. That’s an improvement on last year, when only one (Biden) showed up.