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Meetings during the 2023 United Nations Summit were tense amid conversations about concerns over climate change, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Elizabeth Murray ’26
Staff Writer
Tensions ran high at a recent United Nations meeting in New York City, where discussions about climate disasters, the ongoing war in Ukraine and the absence of several prominent world leaders divided delegates.
During the week of Sept. 18, world leaders gathered for the U.N.’s 78th General Assembly Session. According to The New York Times, only one of the world leaders of the five permanent members of the Security Council, President Joe Biden of the United States, attended.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping skipped the summit for the second year in a row, while French President Emmanuel Macron did not attend due to King Charles III's scheduled visit to France. U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was absent for the same reason, missing his first General Assembly as prime minister. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi also did not attend, according to CBS News.
Dr. Christopher Mitchell, assistant professor of international relations and politics at Mount Holyoke College, noted that “unlike, for instance, Vladimir Putin, all of these leaders were expected to attend at some point, and while they each had their own reasons for not going, it’s a worrying sign for the continued prominence of the U.N. as a forum that such high profile leaders decided to give it a miss,”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy attended the summit in person for the first time since Russia began its invasion and was one of this year’s most anticipated speakers. Mitchell noted that Zelenskyy’s appearance was noteworthy “given the degree to which Russian invasion of Ukraine continues to dominate not just the U.S. and EU relationship with Russia, but also their relationships with India, China and much of the rest of the world.”
According to the BBC, the ongoing war and support for Ukraine was a primary focus of this year’s summit meetings, but not without pushback, as many countries in the Global South have refused to condemn Russia and want to see an end to the war.
Instead of the Russo-Ukrainian War, many world leaders would rather focus on climate-related economic crises. For example, in 2015, 17 sustainable development goals were put in place to be reached by 2030, all of which have gone off track due to the pandemic, the war in Ukraine, rising debt and delayed action.
When asked about how much of a priority climate change was for the U.N., Mitchell said, “[the U.N.] has gotten countries to commit to carbon reduction targets, but absent an enforcement mechanism … [the U.N.] really isn’t in a position to do much more other than rhetorically draw attention to the issue, which it’s already doing.”
The summit meeting on climate change was attended by 32 countries, all of whom create 11% of the world’s carbon dioxide pollution, according to the Associated Press.
Other big issues at this year’s summit were food insecurity, the refugee crisis and a sense of division amongst the delegates. According to CBS, a recorded 700 million people are facing food insecurity and a record-breaking 110 million have been forcefully displaced.
“It is time for a global compromise. Politics is compromise. Diplomacy is compromise. Effective leadership is compromise,” U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in his opening speech, according to the Associated Press. “Leaders have a special responsibility to achieve compromise in building a common future of peace and prosperity for our common good.”
The war in Ukraine has been an obvious sore spot for delegates, especially among the pro-Ukraine factions, pro-Russia factions and those who fall in between. There has been a push for each faction’s members to maintain their stance and convince neutral countries to join them.
“Much like in the Cold War, there’s a lot of efforts by both sides to sway the non-aligned countries, especially India, but also countries like Brazil and many sub-Saharan African countries,” Mitchell said. “Neither side is going to force these countries to take sides, for fear of pushing them to the opposing camp, but both are going to do their best to cajole the non-aligned to join their side.”
A tense moment occurred when President Ebrahim Raisi of Iran spoke to the Assembly. According to The Guardian, Raisi claimed in his speech that Iranian drones used on Ukrainian cities were sold before the war and accused the United States of encouraging violence in Ukraine.
The latter claim prompted the Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations, Gilad Erdan, to walk out in protest while holding a photo of Masa Amini, a Kurdish woman who died in the custody of Iranian police in 2022 after her arrest for wearing the hijab. This occurred after an Iran-United States prisoner exchange, which had inspired hope of softening tensions between the two countries.
“There’s a long history of Iranian presidents using harsh rhetoric at the United Nations and something of an understanding that it’s them speaking to a domestic audience. In essence, something like the prisoner exchange could prompt accusations of being ‘soft on the Americans,’ so some strident rhetoric can help appease domestic hardliners and actually make further practical cooperation easier,” Mitchell said.
The lack of women in attendance was also striking at this year's Assembly. According to the Associated Press, 14 men spoke to the Assembly before a woman approached the podium. This was noted by President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa, whose speech stressed the importance of empowering women in leadership.
Women comprise half of South Africa’s cabinet, and its delegation was made up mostly of women. Only three women in total were scheduled to speak on the first day of the Assembly: Katalin Novak, president of Hungary; Natasa Pirc Musar, president of Slovenia; and Dina Boularte, president of Peru. A total of 189 nations spoke at the General Assembly, but only 21 of the speakers were women.