The UN Hosts a Week of Week of Intense International Diplomacy

This could be a crucial week for international diplomacy, with heads of state and government and many other leaders meeting in New York City for the General Debate of the United Nations General Assembly, from Sept. 24 to Sept. 30. On the sidelines of the debate, the foreign ministers of the G-20 will meet on Sept. 25, and a separate meeting is planned for the same ministers of the BRICS, while a great number of bilateral discussions are taking place, all of which unlikely turn out to be more substantial than the official agenda.

Whatever the specific topic of the get-togethers or the rank of the participants involved, the overriding issue of concern should be stopping the mad drive toward a worldwide nuclear war. A key factor in that remains whether President Biden, or whoever runs the White House at this point, will formally or informally allow Ukrainian forces to strike deep into Russian territory, which would mean putting NATO directly at war with Russia (cf. SAS 38/24).

Intense pressure is being applied to that end by the Anglo-American war party (cf. below). For the occasion, Washington specially had Ukrainian President Zelenskyy flown into the U.S. on a military plane to begin his visit by touring a U.S. Army ammunition plant in Pennsylvania. (Not by coincidence, Pennsylvania happens to be a swing state in the presidential election.) From there, he will attend the UN General Assembly, and then meet with President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris on Sept. 26.

Just as Kyiv is hinting that negotiations with Moscow just might be possible, tensions are rising rapidly in South-West Asia (cf. below). The goal of Benjamin Netanyahu’s government seems to be to draw both Iran and Hezbollah into an escalated conflict, by goading them into action through a series of increasingly provocative attacks, including assassinations, pager explosions that caused many indiscriminate injuries and deaths, and a series of attacks on southern Lebanon that have left hundreds dead and thousands wounded.

The way to break out of this seemingly unstoppable escalation of war is to change the world environment overall. The declining power and moral standing of the trans-Atlantic powers and NATO are encouraging, if not forcing, non-Western countries to seek a new world order based on economic growth and win-win relations. That dynamic should be confirmed at the ongoing meetings in and around the UN, and beyond. China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi, for one, who is present in New York City, intends to make the Global Development Initiative proposed by President Xi Jinping the centerpiece of all his interventions. And India is reportedly working on various peace initiatives.

A preliminary report on the UN events will be taken up at the International Peace Coalition’s meeting online on Sept. 27, beginning 17.00 CET. Please register here.