United Nations Hosts 72nd General Debate

World Powers Discuss Peace and Sustainability

In one of the most important events of the year for foreign policy nerds, from September 19 through September 25 the United Nations General Assembly hosted its 72nd General Debate: “Focusing on People – Striving for Peace and a Decent Life for All on a Sustainable Planet.”

As it would take 6 days to go over everything that happened just involving North Korea, the US, and Iran, I’m going to ignore those nations in this brief, and instead, give you a look at what some other global powers said. For full speeches, videos and summaries of all nations arguments, check out this UN site.

China’s contribution was one of extreme positivity, furthering China’s new reputation as a champion of globalization. China reaffirmed its commitment to the UN – possibly hinting at expanding its powers – and free trade. The nation was relatively non-committal when speaking about North Korea but did unequivocally condemn modern colonialism – a practice China itself has been accused of – and reaffirmed its support for a two-state solution in Palestine.

The United Kingdom took a slightly different approach: Theresa May started off by condemning the nations that directly flout UN regulations – Syria and North Korea got quite a blasting – and demanded that action be taken. Following this, she criticized the United Nations’ inability to make truly binding agreements and officially set 30% of the United Kingdom’s UN funding to exclusively go to areas of the UN that produce concrete results. She wrapped up the speech by again condemning Syria, North Korea, and Myanmar for what she called their crimes against humanity.

In a surprise twist, one of the first things the Russian delegation did in their speech was provide support for the United States’ call for more respect for national sovereignty – UN slang for “leave us alone.”  They followed up their support for the U.S. by condemning the U.S. for trying to restore a Cold War climate (they’re clearly not big believers in global warming). Russia finished its speech by demanding an end to terrorism in the form of ISIL and Al-Nusra/Aleda, and calling for an end to hostilities in Palestine.

Unlike the other members of the P5, France primarily discussed what the United Nations should be doing in terms of humanitarian aid and climate change, continuing in its recent role of representing the interests of smaller nations. France asked for increased help with the Syrian Refugee crisis, pledged more money to the United Nations High Council on Refugees (UNHCR), refused to renegotiate the Paris Climate accords, and called upon the members of the P5 to be more conservative with their veto on topics of mass atrocities.

India stuck to its guns, spending most of its speech condemning Pakistan and calling for the eradication of poverty. Japan, Germany, and Brazil – The rest of the G4 – focused mostly on calling for reform within the UN, with Germany and Japan spending considerable time discussing the expansion of the UN’s peacekeeping powers and how to promote a peaceful international community.

Israel continued to condemn the UN for its stance on both Palestine and the Iran nuclear deal, with Benjamin Netanyahu, the Prime Minister, repeatedly thanking Trump for his speech.