Afternoon summary
Here’s a summary of what happened at today’s UN general assembly meeting in New York:
- Joe Biden addressed the UN for the first time as president, saying that the US is entering a new era of “relentless diplomacy” after withdrawing troops from Afghanistan. Without mentioning any countries by name, Biden said that the he is “not seeking a new cold war” and looks to cooperate with countries rather than compete with them.
- Tail-ending the day was Chinese president Xi Jinping’s pre-recorded remarks for the general assembly. Xi announced that China will no longer invest in coal-fueled power plants abroad. Though he made a sly dig at the US’ handling of Afghanistan, he assured the UN that “one country’s success does not have to mean another country’s failure”.
- Iranian president Seyyed Ebrahim Raisi used most of his speech to slam US sanctions against Iran, calling the sanctions “crimes against humanity” and criticizing the US for being “expelled” from Afghanistan.
- Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro said that while his administration supports vaccine efforts, he does not support vaccine passports or mandates. Instead, Bolsonaro praised efforts for “early treatments” – a mixture of drug cocktails used to treat Covid-19, though some have remained unproven – and criticized countries who “took a stance against early measures”.
- After giving his speech at the UN, Biden headed back to DC to meet with Boris Johnson. The two leaders said they will talk trade, international aid and diplomacy in Afghanistan and the Indo-Pacific region.
We are closing up this live blog for the night. Thanks for reading.
Kicking off their bilateral meeting in masks, Joe Biden and Boris Johnson briefly spoke to the press about what they hope to discuss tonight.
Biden said that he and Johnson plan to discuss the Build Back Better world initiative that was launched at the G7 summit earlier in the summer along with how to “continue our cooperation in Afghanistan and the Indo-Pacific and around the world”.
Johnson reiterated that his trip to the US is important and said he welcomed the US lifting restrictions for vaccinated UK travelers.
The prime minister also emphasized the climate crisis, telling Biden that the most important part of his speech in front of the general assembly is when “you made a commitment on supporting the world to adapt to climate change”, he said.
“Doubling the American commitment is very important for us. It is fantastic to see the United States really stepping up and showing a real lead.”
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Biden and Johnson meet at White House
Joe Biden and Boris Johnson are meeting together in the White House following the UN general assembly meeting in New York.
Biden and Johnson first bonded over Amtrak, which Johnson took on his way from New York to Washington DC on Tuesday.
Johnson also praised the deal made with Australia on a submarine contract, though the deal has angered France, which originally had a contract with Australia. Johnson said the deal has “great potential to benefit the whole world”.
UK’s Boris Johnson in Oval praises the AUKUS security pact with Australia, saying it has “great potential to benefit the whole world.” https://t.co/2lQpC5jGec
— Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) September 21, 2021
When Joe Biden was asked about the prospects of a trade deal with the UK as he met Boris Johnson, the UK prime minister, in the Oval Office, he said: “We’re going to talk about trade a little bit today, and we’re going to have to work that.”
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Chinese president Xi Jinping says 'one country's success does not have to mean another country's failure'
While not in-person at the UN general assembly meeting, Chinese president Xi Jinping spoke about the importance of the global vaccine efforts and made sly remarks about the US without specifically mentioning the country.
Xi endorsed the global rollout of the Covid-19 vaccine, saying that “vaccination is our powerful weapon against Covid-19”. He also spoke broadly in support of “faster global development partnership” and giving aid to developing countries.
On China’s commitment to addressing the climate crisis, Xi said that the country will strive to achieve carbon neutrality before 2060 and, along with developing green and low-carbon energy, will not build any new coal-fired power plants abroad.
Without naming any specific countries, Xi appeared to make remarks about the US withdrawal from Afghanistan saying “military intervention from the outside and so-called democratic transformation entail nothing but harm”.
“A world of peace and development should embrace civilizations of various forms, and must accommodate diverse paths to modernization. Democracy is not a special right reserved to an individual country, but a right for the people of all countries to enjoy,” he said.
Like Joe Biden, who did not name China by name in his speech earlier this morning, Xi affirmed his belief that countries do not need to compete with each other despite the tension between China and the US.
“One country’s success does not have to mean another country’s failure, and the world is big enough to accommodate common development and progress of all countries.”
Xi’s video address was a list-minute contribution to the line-up of speakers. Previously, a deputy prime minister of China was slated to speak on Friday, according to the Associated Press. The UN confirmed yesterday that Xi would be doing a video address.
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Donning masks, Kamala Harris and Boris Johnson held a brief press conference together as Harris welcomed Johnson to the White house.
“The relationship between our two countries is a long and enduring one, one that we value based on shared priorities,” Harris said.
NOW: @VP Kamala Harris greets British PM Boris Johnson from her ceremonial office. Harris says she looks forward to the US and UK’s “long-standing” transatlantic relationship. pic.twitter.com/phRGXHUrxx
— Tim Perry (@tperry518) September 21, 2021
Johnson is set to meet with Joe Biden, who just arrived back in DC after appearing at the UN general assembly meeting this afternoon.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan, president of Turkey, used his speech to discuss the ongoing conflicts in his country’s region, noting that flood of refugees that have been coming from Afghanistan.
While Erdogan acknowledged that Afghans “have been left alone with the consequences of instability and conflicts that have lasted for more than 40 years”, he noted that Turkey has already taken in close to four million Syrian refugees.
“We are also combating on the ground terrorist organizations that have drowned the region in blood and tears,” he said. “As a country that saved human dignity in the Syrian crisis, we no longer have the potential nor the tolerance to absorb new immigrations waves.”
“On the basis of fair burden and responsibility sharing, it is high time for all stakeholders to do their part on this issue.’
Erdogan also called for the end of the “persecution of Palestinian people” saying that “as long as the persecution of Palestinian people continues, lasting peace and stability in the Middle East is not possible.”
He also urged the UN to “reaffirm the sovereign equality and equal international status” of the Turkish population in Cyprus, saying they are “co-owners of the Island”.
South Korean president Moon Jae-in called for a resumption of talks between his country and North Korea and between North Korea and the United States in his speech to the UN general assembly.
“Envisioning a de-nuclearised, co-prosperous Korean peninsula, the government of the Republic of Korea has steadily carried forward the Korean peninsula peace process,” Moon said, saying that the two countries had “achieved historic milestones” over the years with the help of international support.
He noted that North and South Korea simultaneously joined 30 years ago, in 1981. With peace between the Koreas, “I believe we can make irreversible progress in denuclearisation and usher in an era of complete peace,” he said.
“North Korea, for its part, must brace for change that befits the era of the global community. I expect that the international community, together with Korea, will remain always ready and willing to reach out to North Korea in a cooperative spirit.”
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Iranian president say US sanctions are 'crimes against humanity'
Iranian president Seyyed Ebrahim Raisi slammed US sanctions in Iran, suggesting that they are human rights violations, in pre-recorded remarks for the UN general assembly meeting.
Raisi said that sanctions are the “US’s new way of war”, and amount to “crimes against humanity” during the Covid-19 pandemic. US sanctions on Iran exempt food, medicines and humanitarian supplies, but Iranian authorities have prohibited importing US- and UK-produced vaccines, with officials sharing scepticism over vaccines produced in those countries.
The president insisted that “the world doesn’t care about ‘America First’ or ‘America is Back’”, saying that the 6 January insurrection at the US Capitol and the country’s removal of troops from Afghanistan was proof that the “US’ hegemonic system has no credibility, whether in or outside the country”.
“The result of seeking hegemony has been blood-spilling and instability and, ultimately, defeat and escape,” Raisi said. “Today, the US does not get to exit Iraq and Afghanistan but is expelled.”
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Joe Biden has promised to the United Nations that the withdrawal from Afghanistan is a turning point in history, in which “relentless war” would be supplanted by “relentless diplomacy”, pledging a renewed commitment to the UN and to his nation’s alliances.
“As I stand here today, for the first time in 20 years the United States is not at war. We’ve turned the page,” Biden said in his first address to the UN general assembly as president. “All the unmatched strength, energy, commitment, will and resources of our nation are now fully and squarely focused on what’s ahead of us, not what was behind.”
To back up his promise, Biden said the US would give $11bn a year to developing nations to support their response to the global climate emergency.
His tone was in dramatic contrast to his predecessor. Donald Trump made no secret of his distrust of the UN. Biden called it a “noble institution”. But world leaders responded with scepticism to Biden’s appeals for peace, made just a few days after it was revealed that the US, UK and Australia had been secretly negotiating for months over the construction of a new fleet of nuclear-powered submarines.
Biden was also making his presidential debut just weeks after the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan, widely viewed among UN member states as having been rushed for domestic political reasons, with little regard for the Afghans left behind to face the Taliban.
In his address, Biden sought to place the withdrawal in a broader, more positive historical perspective.
“We’ve ended 20 years of conflict in Afghanistan, and as we close this period of relentless war we’re opening a new era of relentless diplomacy, of using the power of our development aid to invest in new ways of lifting people up around the world, renewing and defending democracy,” he said.
While the UN general assembly meeting is officially centred around climate change and the end of the Covid-19 pandemic, the US withdrawal from Afghanistan has also been a common discussion point for leaders addressing the general assembly.
Joe Biden, who dedicated a large portion of his speech defending the US withdrawal as a way to make way for “relentless diplomacy”, ended his speech by saying, “I stand here today for the first time in 20 years with the United States not at war. We’ve turned the page.”
In his introductory remarks, the UN secretary general, António Guterres, said that “for far too many around the world peace and stability remained a distant dream”, calling for the bolstering of military assistance and the defence of human rights, especially for women and girls, in Afghanistan.
Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro said that Afghanistan is a “cause of deep concern for us” and said that the country will be taking in Afghan Christians, women and children as refugees.
Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, the ruler of Qatar, told the general assembly that while it is important to continue offering humanitarian aid and assistance to Afghans, “it’s also important to continue dialogue with the Taliban”.
“Boycotting [the Taliban] will only lead to polarisation and reactions, whereas dialogue could be fruitful,” al-Thani said. “The issue in Afghanistan is not a matter of victory or defeat, but rather the failure to import the political system. Regardless of intentions, efforts made or money invested, this experience in Afghanistan has collapsed after 20 years.”
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Joe Biden’s headline announcement at the United Nations is a doubling of climate aid given by the US to developing countries – the total will top $11bn if Congress agrees – but beneath this there was tacit acknowledgment that the climate crisis is in danger of spinning dangerously out of control.
At times Biden struck an almost pleading note as he urged other countries to raise their ambitions to cut planet-heating emissions, with governments currently falling badly short in the effort to avert truly disastrous climate change. China, responsible for a quarter of global emissions, is firmly at odds with the US over trade and security issues. And domestically the president’s main climate policies, packed into the $3.5tn reconciliation bill, risk being sunk by Senator Joe Manchin and Senate Republicans.
“This year has brought widespread death and devastation from the borderless climate crisis,” Biden said. “We are fast approaching the point of no return in a literal sense. Will we meet the threat of the more challenging climate already ravaging every part of our world with extreme weather, or we will we suffer the merciless march of ever worsening droughts and floods, more intense fires and hurricanes, longer heatwaves and rising seas?”
But the lack of progress, just weeks before crucial UN climate talks in Scotland, is causing rising frustration and anger among leaders of poorer countries and environmental groups who warn that much of the world risks being condemned to a barely liveable future. “We are on the edge of an abyss and moving in the wrong direction,” admitted António Guterres, secretary general of the UN. “We must get serious, and we must act fast.”
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Ibrahim Mohamed Solih, president of the Maldives, spoke to the general assembly about what the nation has experienced during the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Our economy relies on welcoming tourists to these shores. We import nearly everything from food to medicine to the materials we build our shelters with. Having shut down our borders, we were faced with catastrophic outcomes,” Solih said.
He noted that 95% of schoolchildren and 85% of all residents in the Maldives have been vaccinated against Covid-19.
“The key is vaccines. Vaccinating the world as soon as possible is where we overcome vaccine inequality,” Solih said.
Speaking about the climate crisis, the president noted that like many other island nation, the Maldives is highly threatened by the crisis.
“The difference between 1.5 degrees and two degrees is a death sentence for the Maldives,” he said, noting that “there is no guarantee of survival for any one nation in a world where the Maldives ceases to exist.”
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Without mentioning any specific adversaries by name, Joe Biden told the UN general assembly that the country is “heartening our critical infrastructure against cyber-attacks”.
“We will pursue new rules of global trade and economic growth. We strive to level the playing field so that it’s not artificially tipped in favor of any one country at the expense of others,” he said. “All the major powers of the world have a duty, in my view, to carefully manage their relationships so we do not tip from responsible competition to conflict.”
“We are not seeking a new cold war or a world divided into regional blocks,” he said.
Biden noted that the most effective way to “enhance security and reduce violence” in the world is “to improve the lives of the people all over the world”.
“Human suffering is nothing less than a national security threat in the 21st century,” he said.
Biden ended his speech by saying the US will champion “the democratic values that go to the very heart of who we are as a nation – freedom, equality, opportunity and a belief in the universal rights of all people.” He noted efforts to protect democracy, including women and LGBTQ rights, around the world.
“Democracy remains the best tool we have to unleash our full human potential,” Biden said. “We must come together to affirm that the inherent humanity that unites us is much greater.”
“The future will belong to those who embrace human dignity, not trample them.”
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In his speech at the UN general assembly meeting, Joe Biden emphasized the US priority in defending allies and the country’s interests, including in terrorist attacks, but said that while the country is prepared to use force if necessary, the “US military power must be our tool of last resort, not our first.”
“It should not be used as an answer to every problem we see around the world,” he said.
Biden noted that “bombs and bullets cannot defend against Covid-19 or its future variants.”
“To fight this pandemic, we need a collective act of science and political will. We need to act now to get shots in arms as fast as possible and expand access to oxygen treatments to save lives.”
Biden noted US investment in climate change, including changes to greenhouse gas emission reduction goals and increases investment in green infrastructure and electric vehicles.
“It’s an enormous opportunity to create good paying jobs for workers in each of our countries and to spur long term economic growth, improve the quality of life for all of our people,” he said.
Biden: US is 'opening a new era of relentless diplomacy'
Joe Biden is speaking at the UN general assembly, his first speech as US president. Biden noted the 4.5m people who have died from Covid-19 saying, “our shared grief is a poignant reminder that our collective future will hinge on our ability to recognize our common humanity, to act together.”
“This is the clear and urgent choice that we face here at the dawning of what must be a decisive decade for our world. A decade that will quite literally, determine our futures as a global community,” he said.
“In my view, how we answer these questions in this moment, whether we choose to fight for our shared future or not will reverberate for generations yet to come.”
Biden briefly addressed the US removal of troops in Afghanistan, saying that “Instead of continuing to fight the wars of the past. We are fixing our eyes and devoting our resources to the challenges that hold the keys to our collective future.”
“We’re opening a new era of relentless diplomacy of using the power of our development aid to invest in new ways of listing people up around the world,” he said, adding that the US is turning its focus on “regions of the world” that are most “consequential”, including the Indo-Pacific region.
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Bolsonaro promotes Covid 'early treatment' in speech
Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro was the first leader to speak at the UN general assembly meeting today.
Bolsonaro has proven to be a controversial figure during the Covid-19 pandemic, downplaying the impacts of the virus and defiantly refusing to be vaccinated.
The president emphasized that his administration supports vaccination efforts, “however, my administration has not supported a vaccine or health passport or any other vaccine-related obligation”.
Bolsonaro also said that the has supported the “quest for early treatment measures”, noting that he himself underwent “early treatment” for Covid. The president has supported a cocktail of treatments, some still unproven, as treatment for Covid-19 over the vaccine.
“We cannot understand why many countries, together with a large portion of the media, took a stance against early treatment measures,” Bolsonaro said. The president noted that by November, “all citizens who have chosen to be vaccinated in Brazil will be duly covered.”
Before speaking on the vaccine, Bolsonaro boasted his administration’s accomplishments, saying that “Brazil has changed a great deal” since he took office in January 2019.
“It is a solid foundation if we take into account that we were at the brink of socialism,” he said. “Brazil has a president who believes in God, respects the Constitution, values family principles and is loyal to his people.”
Bolsonaro announced that Brazil is looking to hold an auction for 5G technology deployment in the country and that the country will be welcoming Afghan refugees, including Christians, women and children.
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The Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro, who is due to open the UN general assembly this morning, is having a torrid time in New York, where he has been pursued by angry protesters and reprimanded by senior politicians for snubbing Covid vaccination.
In the few hours since he arrived in the Big Apple on Sunday Brazil’s far-right leader has been scolded by the city’s mayor, Bill di Blasio, who said that those, like Bolsonaro, who refused to be jabbed shouldn’t “bother” to visit New York.
On Monday Boris Johnson also used an encounter with Bolsonaro, under whose presidency nearly 600,000 Brazilians have died from Covid, to push vaccination, telling Brazil’s leader he was double jabbed.
Brazilian protesters, meanwhile, have pursued their beleaguered president around New York to lambast his “murderous” response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Bolsonaro’s son, Eduardo, was berated while trying to visit an Apple Store. On Tuesday morning Bolsonaro, apparently discomboluted by the attacks, tweeted a video in which he called such critics a “brainless” minority with “shit” in their heads.
Bolsonaro’s health minister, Marcelo Queiroga, was caught on camera angrily making the “up yours” gesture to protesters, sparking a major outcry in Brazil.
“One humiliation after the next,” the Brazilian journalist Vera Magalhães tweeted after Di Blasio tweeted a list of New York vaccination sites to Bolsonaro. “We have a pariah in the presidency.”
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After speaking broadly on the pandemic and the climate crisis, UN secretary general António Guterres spoke on mistrust, which he called the other “disease [that] is spreading in our world today”.
“When people see promises of progress denied by the realities of their harsh lives, when they see their fundamental rights and freedoms curtailed, when they see grand corruption around them,” Guterres said, along with seeing billionaires going to space “while millions go hungry”.
“Core values are in the crosshairs. A breakdown in trust is leading to a breakdown in values. Promises after all are worthless if people do not see results in their daily lives, failure to deliver creates space for some of the darkest impulses of humanity,” Guterres said.
Guterres specifically cited a slate of conflicts in Afghanistan, Myanmar, Yemen and Israel and Palestine among others as priorities in international peacemaking.
Without mentioning the US and China by name, Guterres noted that “it will be impossible to address dramatic economic and developed challenges while the world’s two largest economies are at odds with each other” saying that two different sets of economic approaches and geopolitical strategies are “a recipe for trouble”.
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In his speech in front of the general assembly, UN secretary general António Guterres is painting a dire global picture, sharply criticizing the unequal rollout of the Covid-19 vaccine and the response to the climate crisis.
Guterres noted that the “majority of the wealthier world” is vaccinated while “over 90% of Africans are still waiting for the first dose.”
“This is a moral indictment of the state of our worlds, it is an obscenity. We passed the science test, but we are getting an F in ethics.”
Guterres also urged urgency over addressing the climate crisis, noting the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) report that warned climate change will bring about rising temperatures and extreme weather more quickly than anticipated.
“We see the warning signs in every continent and region, scorching temperatures, shocking biodiversity loss, polluted air water and natural spaces and climate-related disasters at every turn,” he said.
Guterres noted that the UN climate conference in Glasgow, set to take place in November, is weeks away and that nations are “seemingly light years away from reaching out targets.”
“We must get serious, and we must act fast.”
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Good morning, and welcome to the United Nations general assembly meeting live blog. A long list of world leaders are expected to address the general assembly today, including Joe Biden, who is expected to speak this morning.
This general assembly meeting has been focused on two topics: climate change and the end of the Covid-19 pandemic. Over 100 leaders are at the UN headquarters in New York City after the meeting was held virtually last year due to the pandemic.
In his first speech to the UN, Biden is expected to “close the chapter on 20 years of war” and speak on intensive diplomacy. The White House views Biden’s UN speech as an opportunity to convince other nations that “America is back”.
Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro, a known Covid-19 vaccine skeptic, is also expected to address the general assembly this morning. Leaders of Mexico, South Korea and Turkey are also scheduled to speak.
UN secretary general António Guterres has already started the day with an opening speech critical of the global effort to manage climate change and the pandemic.
“The world must wake up. We are on the edge of an abyss and headed in the wrong direction,” he said. “Covid and the climate crisis have exposed profound fragilities in societies and as a planet.”
We’ll be continuing to watch today’s speeches and keeping an eye out for any updates, so stay tuned.
