Dozens of heads of states are expected to descend upon the UN headquarters in New York for the annual General Assembly. The high-level General Debate starts on September 21 and lasts until September 27.
World leaders have returned at the United Nations for the first time in two years on Tuesday with a formidable agenda of escalating crises to tackle, including the still raging Covid-19 pandemic and a relentlessly warming planet.
Other pressing issues are rising US-China tensions, Afghanistan’s unsettled future under its new Taliban rulers and ongoing conflicts in Yemen, Syria and Ethiopia’s embattled Tigray region.
Although the event was held almost entirely virtually last year because of the pandemic, many leaders will deliver in-person speeches at this year’s summit, including US President Joe Biden, who will make his first address to the 193-member world body since he took office.
Meanwhile, popular South Korean boy band, BTS, performed its hit song “Permission to Dance” Monday at the UN headquarters in New York. The band aimed at drawing the audience’s attention on ‘Keeping the Promise of the Sustainable Development Goals’.
By tradition, President Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil will be the first world leader to give an in-person speech at this year’s UN General Assembly meeting, despite vowing to defy the gathering’s vaccination requirement.
The three most closely watched speakers on Tuesday are expected to be US President Joe Biden, appearing at the UN for the first time since his defeat of Donald Trump in the November election, China’s President Xi Jinping, who in a surprise move will deliver a video address, and Iran’s recently elected hardline President Ebrahim Raisi.
Watch LIVE: World leaders arrive for the start of the U.N. General Assembly
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