UN General Debate: Working Together | tagesschau.de

In his speech at the United Nations, US President Biden invoked peaceful solutions to global crises and conflicts. China’s President Xi also emphasized dialogue and cooperation. The fight against climate change was declared together.

It was the phrase of the day. Joe Biden used his first speech as US President to the UN General Assembly to send a clear message: “We are back at the table of international forums, especially here at the United Nations, to tackle great challenges together.”

The difference to his predecessor Donald Trump could not have been any clearer – at least rhetorically. In previous years he had repeatedly emphasized that the USA came first for him: America First. It sounds different with Biden:

Our security, our prosperity and our freedom are more intertwined than ever before. And that’s why I believe we need to work together like never before.

There are plenty of reasons for this: the corona pandemic, the impending climate catastrophe, terrorist threats or the tensions with China. “We are not aiming for a new cold war or a world that is divided into rigid blocks,” said Biden, without naming China. Previously, UN Secretary General Guterres had warned of a new cold war that threatened to divide the world.

Xi is committed to multilateralism

China’s answer was not long in coming, but it was strikingly diplomatic. Chinese President Xi Jinping affirmed his commitment to multilateralism in his speech. Disputes between countries must be resolved through dialogue and cooperation, said Xi in a video message recorded for the general debate.

Without naming the United States directly, he added that “outside military intervention and so-called democratic transformation does nothing but harm”. The world is big enough to allow common development and progress for all countries, Xi said. “The success of one country does not have to mean the failure of another country”. It is important to strive for dialogue and inclusiveness, not for confrontation and exclusion.

Biden: “Era of relentless diplomacy.”

Hours before, Biden had once again defended US action on another hot spot, the withdrawal from Afghanistan.

I’m here today – and for the first time in 20 years the United States is not at war. We have turned the tide. The use of the US military must be the last resort – not the first. Nor should it be the answer to every problem in the world.

Biden had rigorously pulled through the sometimes chaotic withdrawal of US troops despite warnings from experts and contrary to the line of international partners. In his UN speech, the US President tried to portray this as a strategic and historical turning point.

We ended the conflict in Afghanistan after 20 years. As we end this period of relentless war, we are opening a new era of relentless diplomacy.

Taliban want to speak for Afghanistan at the UN general debate

Representatives of all 193 member states of the United Nations speak at the annual general debate. In the meantime, UN Secretary General Guterres has also received a letter from Kabul in which Taliban Foreign Minister Motaki asks to be able to speak on behalf of Afghanistan in the debate. The radical Islamic Taliban justified the demand with the removal of the previous Afghan President Ghani. The country’s previous ambassador to the UN is also no longer in office.

The UN Secretariat has now passed the letter on to the responsible certification committee for examination. It consists of nine member countries – the USA, Russia, China, Sweden, Namibia, the Bahamas, Bhutan, Sierra Leone and Chile – and decides which representatives and thus which leaderships of states are recognized by the United Nations.

For the Taliban, having its own representation at the United Nations would not only be a big step towards international recognition, it could also pave the way for the country to gain access to international aid. Whether Taliban Foreign Minister Motaki will actually appear before the General Assembly in the next few days is questionable: The accreditation committee has not yet scheduled a meeting. The current ambassador, Isaczai, is currently planning to speak at the general debate for Afghanistan on Monday.

More climate aid for poor countries

US President Biden said in his speech in New York that the world was facing a decisive decade in view of the climate crisis. He pledged the United Nations to double its annual climate aid to help poorer countries. “This will make the United States a pioneer in public climate finance,” announced Biden.

Together with the international community and other donors, the goal of providing 100 billion dollars a year to support developing countries can be achieved. In April, Biden had announced an increase in climate aid to 5.7 billion dollars (4.9 billion euros) per year. Climate aid for developing countries is an important part of the international strategy in the fight against global warming.

Guterres: “Standing on the Edge of the Abyss”

Before Biden’s appearance, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres initiated the start of the UN General Assembly. “I’m here to sound the alarm: the world has to wake up,” he said. “We are on the edge of the abyss and we are moving in the wrong direction. Our world has never been in greater danger and never more divided. We stand before that greatest cascade of crisis of our lifetime. “

German Chancellor Angela Merkel had already promoted more ambitious climate protection goals around the world in the run-up to the top-level meeting. Germany wants to be climate neutral by 2045, she said in a video message. “We are also setting an example for the climate conference in Glasgow,” she said with a view to COP26, which begins on November 1st.

Xi: China doesn’t want to build new coal-fired power plants abroad

In the fight against global warming, China will no longer build coal-fired power plants abroad, according to head of state Xi Jinping. “China will step up its support for other developing countries in developing green and low-carbon energies,” said Xi at the UN general debate. China will also “not build any new coal-fired power plants abroad.”

When it comes to economic development, attention must be paid to “harmony between people and nature,” said Xi in his video address. China is currently pushing infrastructure and other construction projects in numerous countries as part of its New Silk Road project – and is also open to coal power. According to a group of non-governmental organizations, the state-owned Bank of China is on its own the world’s largest financier of coal projects and has pumped around $ 35 billion into the sector since the Paris Agreement in 2015. China – the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases – is also investing heavily in coal power in its own country in order to secure economic growth.

The Chinese government has announced that it will reduce CO2 emissions before 2030. The country should be CO2 neutral by 2060. The Paris climate protection agreement, passed at the end of 2015, aims to limit global warming to well below two degrees compared to the pre-industrial era and is considered a milestone in the fight against climate change. A recently published UN report sees the earth on the dangerous path of warming by 2.7 degrees without a radical change in direction.

With information from Peter Mücke and Antje Passenheim, ARD-Studio Washington