HOW WILL U.N. REACT TO TRUMP?
All eyes on US president when the 72nd edition of the world’s largest diplomatic meeting convenes
WHEN the 193-member United Nations convenes here for the annual General Assembly speeches and high-level meetings, world leaders will be paying closest attention to the words and gestures of the most unconventional — and powerful — leader among them.
What United States President Donald Trump says, whom he may offend, please or surprise, and how world leaders react are likely to dominate the chatter at the UN, which, in its 72nd year, is barely older than 71-year-old Trump.
Here are five issues to watch:
THE TRUMP EFFECT
While this will be Trump’s first visit to the UN as president, he has castigated the organisation as an elitist “club” and proposed what amount to drastic cuts in voluntary contributions from the US, the single biggest donor.
Trump has taken issue with what much of the world regards as one of the most significant achievements at the UN, the Paris climate accord to curb greenhouse gases. His administration has objected to other positions advocated by UN: protecting the rights of refugees and migrants; the Iran nuclear agreement; and a new treaty that many members are expected to sign tomorrow that would outlaw nuclear weapons.
What will he demand from an organisation he has pilloried? How will he treat UN Secretary-General António Guterres, who said last week that he had been trying to build a “constructive relationship” with Trump? What, if anything, will Trump say about global warming?
NORTH KOREA’S DEFIANCE
By now, North Korea’s defiance of Security Council resolutions banning its tests of ballistic missiles and atomic bombs has become almost routine. Kim Jongun, the North Korean leader, launched a missile last Friday that flew longer than those previously tested, just four days after the most recent raft of sanctions was adopted and just as General Assembly preparations were getting under way.
What will he do when world leaders converge here? (Kim is not coming.) Trump has vowed a “fire and fury” response if North Korea threatens the US. Whether he will engage in what critics have described as rash talk remains unclear.
ATROCITIES IN MYANMAR
Guterres and his top human rights official have both described the killings and persecution of Myanmar’s Rohingya Muslim minority as a textbook example of ethnic cleansing. With nearly a half-million Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh and daily evidence of atrocities in Myanmar, will the Security Council, which is empowered to do something to halt the killings, maintain its conspicuously mild response despite increased pressure to act quickly?
China, Myanmar’s main patron, is reluctant to issue any statement calling for an end to military operations.
IRAN NUCLEAR DEAL
Trump and his UN ambassador, Nikki R. Haley, have both sought to vilify Iran as a sponsor of terrorism and have suggested that the US may abandon the 2015 deal negotiated by the Obama administration and five other major powers that limited Iran’s nuclear activities.
Trump has grudgingly accepted the deal despite having described it as one of the worst ever negotiated.
Will he go forward with threats to repudiate it and risk isolation? Western diplomats have expressed worry about the administration’s hostility to the accord, saying that it could create more nuclear uncertainty at a time when the world is trying to deal with North Korea.
GLOBAL WARMING
The General Assembly is taking place against a backdrop of apocalyptic droughts, floods and hurricanes, including two that have ravaged parts of Texas, Florida and the Caribbean in the past few weeks. What will world leaders say about these disasters and the Paris climate deal? Will the Trump administration be swayed to rethink its decision to withdraw?
Trump reiterated his climatechange scepticism after a visit to Florida last Thursday.
“We’ve had bigger storms than this.”