United Nations.- The United Nations General Assembly featured speeches by various world leaders from countries such as the United States, Argentina and Brazil.
The high-level meeting of the 193 member nations of the United Nations began on Tuesday under the shadow of growing divisions, large-scale wars in Gaza, Ukraine and Sudan, and the challenges posed by climate change.
Here are some of the keynote speeches:
Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva opened the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday with a call for the world to do more to combat climate change. He mentioned the fires ravaging his country’s rainforest, but not the fact that they add to criticism of his own government’s environmental stewardship.
“The Amazon is experiencing its worst drought in 45 years. Forest fires that are spreading across the country have already devoured 5 million hectares in August alone,” he said in New York.
“My government does not outsource responsibilities or abdicate its sovereignty. We have already done a lot, but we know that there is much more to do.”
Many delegates focused their speeches on the war in Gaza.
“The right to self-defense has become a right to revenge, which prevents an agreement on the release of hostages and delays a ceasefire.”
Joe Biden
US President Joe Biden has warned of the danger of a “full-scale war” in Lebanon.
“A full-scale war is in no one’s interest. Even though the situation has worsened, a diplomatic solution is still possible,” Biden said at the UN headquarters in New York.
In his final speech as US president before this forum, Biden also called for a ceasefire in Gaza.
“Our task, our test, is to make sure that the forces that bind us together are stronger than those that divide us,” Biden said.
“I truly believe that we are at another turning point in world history. Because the decisions we make today will determine our future for decades to come.”
Gustavo Petro
Colombian President Gustavo Petro has criticised world governments for being “incapable” of effectively combating climate change, in a speech in which he also singled out those who “applaud the genocide” in Gaza.
“Things are worse today than they were a year ago,” Petro said, referring to his previous speech at the UN in which he warned that humanity was becoming extinct.
“Scientists said that if the Amazon rainforest burned, we would reach the climatic point of no return… Well, the Amazon rainforest is burning; the end has begun.”
Javier Milei
Argentine President Javier Milei on Tuesday denounced the United Nations’ “ideological agenda” and accused the body of being governed by “international bureaucrats” in a sharp speech before the General Assembly in New York, in which he distanced himself from the “Pact for the Future” adopted on Sunday by 193 countries.
Milei praised the UN’s “remarkable success” in its early years in the 20th century, but said that over time the organization had become “a multi-tentacled Leviathan that seeks to decide not only what each state or nation should do, but also how all citizens of the world should live.”
“This is how we went from an organization that pursued peace to an organization that imposes an ideological agenda on its members,” Milei said in his first speech at the UN after taking over Argentina’s leadership in December 2023.
He also harshly criticized the 2030 Agenda.
“Although well-intentioned in its goals, (the 2030 Agenda) is nothing more than a socialist supranational government program that seeks to resolve the problems of modernity with solutions that undermine the sovereignty of nation states and violate people’s right to life, liberty and property,” he said.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has lashed out at the UN for its inaction over Gaza, accusing Israel of turning the Palestinian territory into the “largest cemetery for children and women in the world.”
He also expressed support for Lebanon, where Israel has launched widespread attacks against Hezbollah, and criticized Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government for dragging the Middle East region “into an ever-deeper war.”
“Not only children, but also the UN system is dying in Gaza,” Erdogan told the UN General Assembly in New York.
Erdogan criticised the UN Security Council for failing to order a halt to the fighting and urged the international community to stop “Netanyahu and his murderous network”, comparing the prime minister to Adolf Hitler of Nazi Germany.
“Just as Hitler was stopped by the alliance of humanity 70 years ago, Netanyahu and his murderous network must be stopped by the ‘alliance of humanity,’” he said.
Erdogan criticised the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics in July, which featured drag queens and was widely misinterpreted as a reenactment of Christ’s last supper with his disciples. He called it a “shame” that “revealed the dimensions of the threat we face as humanity”.
“Anyone who raises their voice against this project of destruction and shows even the slightest reaction is silenced and becomes the target of lynching campaigns,” he said.
Nayib Bukele
El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele has defended the results of his anti-gang campaign, saying it has restored peace to the country’s streets.
“In the last five years, El Salvador has been reborn, we have returned the streets of our country to our people,” Bukele said in his speech before the UN General Assembly.
“Some say we have imprisoned thousands, but the reality is that we have freed millions. Now it is the good ones who live free, without fear, with their freedoms and human rights fully respected.”
Bukele also assured that political and freedom of expression exist in El Salvador.
“In El Salvador, we do not imprison our opposition, we do not censor opinions, we do not confiscate the property of those who think differently, we do not arrest people for expressing their ideas,” he said.
“In El Salvador, your freedom of expression, as well as your private property, will always be protected.”
Gabriel Boric
Chile is “no longer in a position to receive more migration” from Venezuela, President Gabriel Boric said on Tuesday after criticizing the United States sanctions that, according to him, are pushing Venezuelans to flee their country.
“Economic sanctions hit the Venezuelan people harder than their current leaders. They hit the humble, the workers,” added the Chilean President.
According to Boric, the economic punishment and the political crisis have together forced more than seven million Venezuelans into exile.
“Of these, around 800,000 are in Chile. And out of responsibility, I must be clear on this point: Chile is not in a position to receive more migrants,” he stressed during his speech at the United Nations headquarters.
#day #General #Assembly