UNGA agenda in New York City highlights key discussions this week

The security cordons are up. The streets are ready to be sealed off. Aircraft from myriad nations are landing in New York.

It all means one thing for the eastern part of Manhattan: The yearly gathering of world leaders at the United Nations is at hand.

The UN General Assembly’s high-level leaders’ meeting convenes Tuesday in a troubled world — arguably even more troubled than last year, when the chief of the United Nations warned that the problems were overwhelming.

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will likely issue a similar warning on Tuesday as he opens the meeting, and world leaders take the stage amid war and rumors of war.

On Monday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan discussed Israel's attack on Palestine and the importance of a revitalisation of ties between Türkiye and the EU. He is also expecting "support from Germany on 'immediate resolution' of visa issue", according to Anadolu Agency.

Speaking to German Chancellor Olaf Scholz at the Turkish House on the sidelines of the 79th session of the UN General Assembly in New York to discuss bilateral relations, Erdogan stressed that "Türkiye is ready for steps that will benefit both countries."

Turning to Israel's recent attacks in the region, Erdogan said the country seeks to expand "its cycle of violence and sees no harm in violating international law and human rights."

He added that "the support of Western countries, in particular for Israel, caused unprecedented massacres in Gaza and made Israel even more reckless."

On the sidelines

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken says upcoming leadership changes in Japan and the United States won’t have any impact on their commitments to security in Northeast Asia.

Speaking at a meeting with the Japanese and South Korean foreign ministers on the sidelines of the general assembly, Blinken said the US presidential race pitting Vice President Kamala Harris against former President Donald Trump, as well as Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s impending retirement, will not change the three countries’ joint resolve to combat threats posed by China and North Korea.

He said the three-way collaboration among the allies after last year’s historic Camp David summit between the leaders “is stronger than it’s ever been, more effective than it’s ever been, and more important than it’s ever been, given the shared challenges that we face as well as the many opportunities before us to seize.”

Climate moment

A group of scientists produced the first of what they hope is an annual planetary health check. The prognosis is grim.

Earth is in the danger zone on six of the nine special systems that scientists looked into, with a seventh flirting with that risky area and maybe already breaching the boundary, according to the “planetary health check” by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Research and the group called Planetary Guardians. The six areas definitely out of whack are the freshwater system, the climate, the phosphorous cycle, biodiversity, general land health and “novel” chemicals (such as microplastics). Ocean acidification is about to cross the danger line or may have done so already, the report said.

“For 30, 40 years, the world has been conscious that Earth is going in the wrong direction but we did not feel the earth was on fire. Right now the planet is on fire and that’s why we need to act,” former Colombia President Juan Manuel Santos said in a press briefing.

Quotable

“They are dragging us to a point where we do not wish to go. There is no winner in warfare."

—Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, speaking about Israel

What else?

Caribbean leaders want big polluters — especially fossil fuel companies — to pay more of the trillions of dollars the world needs to help poor nations deal with the climate crisis's impacts and switch to cleaner energy.

In a brief video appearance, Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley a leader in the call for global financial reform and seen as a possible future UN secretary-general, said poorer and middle income nations realise that private money is going to have to be part of a financial deal. But she said many multinational companies, which are richer than dozens of small nations, should pony up more dollars.

Conflicts in Gaza and Lebanon, Ukraine and Sudan are expected to take center stage all week. Guterres opens the debate Tuesday morning.