Global Leaders Tackle Modern Challenges at U.N. Summit

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Amid a turbulent world filled with conflicts and crises, global leaders convening this week’s annual United Nations gathering face a daunting task. They must strive for unity—not just on pressing issues but on revamping the international systems established post-World War II to handle future threats.

Last year, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres sounded the alarm about the survival of humanity and our planet and urged leaders to attend a “Summit of the Future.” He called for a renewed commitment to multilateralism—the bedrock of the U.N. and other international bodies—aiming to modernize the outdated global framework to address our rapidly changing world.

Guterres recently told journalists that the summit is necessary because “global challenges are evolving faster than our ability to resolve them.” He cited “uncontrolled geopolitical fractures,” rampant conflicts, climate change, inequality, mounting debts, and the unregulated rise of technologies like artificial intelligence.

The two-day summit kicks off Sunday, preempting the U.N.’s high-level meetings that start Tuesday at their sprawling New York City headquarters.

Whether any meaningful progress will be made remains uncertain. As of Saturday, no final agreement had been reached on the summit’s main outcome document—a comprehensive accord requiring unanimous backing from all 193 U.N. member states. Diplomatic insiders indicated that Russia and a few other nations still had reservations about the final text.

“Leaders must decide if this will be yet another session where they merely discuss increased cooperation, or if they’ll show the creativity and determination to achieve it,” remarked Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s secretary-general. “Missing this critical chance could spell dire consequences. Our collective future is in jeopardy.”

This Week Marks the UN’s Prime Time

This summit sets the stage for the prestigious annual meeting in September, where over 130 heads of state, including presidents, prime ministers, and monarchs, are scheduled to speak. The crucial issues discussed at the summit will likely dominate their addresses and private dialogues, particularly the wars in Gaza, Ukraine, and Sudan and the looming potential for a broader Middle East conflict.

“There’s a glaring gap between the Future Summit’s focus on enhancing international cooperation and the reality that the U.N. is floundering in Gaza, Ukraine, and Sudan,” observed Richard Gowan, U.N. director for the International Crisis Group. “These three conflicts will dominate attention throughout the week.”

One noteworthy moment awaits on Tuesday: U.S. President Joe Biden, making what might be his last major appearance on the international stage.

At a recent briefing, U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield emphasized, “The most vulnerable globally rely on us to advance progress and instill hope.” To address various challenges, she said the U.S. will prioritize ending “the scourge of war,” noting that roughly two billion people reside in conflict zones.

Last September, the Ukraine war and its president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, dominated the U.N. gathering. However, with the first anniversary of Hamas’ deadly southern Israel attack on Oct. 7, focus will undoubtedly shift to the Gaza conflict and rising tensions along the Israel-Lebanon border, threatening to engulf the wider Middle East.

Iran, which backs both Hamas in Gaza and Lebanon’s Hezbollah militants, will also be represented. Its new president, Masoud Pezeshkian, will address the assembly on Tuesday. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are slated to speak on Thursday.

Zelenskyy will take the floor twice: during Tuesday’s high-level U.N. Security Council meeting—initiated by the U.S., France, Japan, Malta, South Korea, and Britain—and in the General Assembly on Wednesday morning.

Combating a World Filled with Dire Statistics

Slovenia, holding the council’s rotating presidency this month, chose “Leadership for Peace” as the theme for Wednesday’s high-level session. They are challenging its 15 member nations to scrutinize why the U.N. body responsible for maintaining global peace and security is struggling and how it can improve.

“We observe a world plagued by grim statistics, including the highest number of ongoing conflicts and record-high casualties among civilians, aid workers, medical personnel, and journalists,” said Slovenian U.N. Ambassador Samuel Zbogar. He noted that over 100 million people have been displaced by conflict.

“The world is becoming less stable and less peaceful,” Zbogar continued, “and with a diminishing respect for rules, we are slipping into chaos. We’ve never seen such a dire need to rebuild trust to secure our future.”

A significant reason for the Security Council’s dysfunction lies in the rifts among its five veto-wielding permanent members. The U.S.—a staunch ally of Israel—and the U.K. and France support Ukraine. Meanwhile, Russia, which invaded Ukraine, maintains a military and economic partnership with China. Although Beijing reaffirmed its long-standing support for national sovereignty, it refrained from criticizing Russia in a recent briefing for the U.N. meetings.

French President Emmanuel Macron and the U.K.’s new Prime Minister Keir Starmer will join Biden in New York. However, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping are sending their foreign ministers instead. Neither attended last year either.

Presiding over this week’s events, Guterres warned that the world is witnessing “a surge in conflicts and a sense of lawlessness.” He noted, “Any country or military group now seems to believe they can act with impunity, as there’s little accountability.”

“And the perception that major powers lack the ability to resolve on-ground problems,” he added, “exacerbates this sense of impunity to an alarming degree.”