Trump will seek allies on UN debut N Korea, Iran high on agenda
US PRESIDENT Donald Trump will embark on a whirlwind series of meetings at the UN General Assembly to make two big requests of the world: Stand with us against North Korea, and hold the line against Iran’s nuclear programme.
Over the course of four days, beginning today, Trump will engage in a speed round of diplomacy.
This may test his patience for the world body as well as his preference for one-on-one dealmaking in which the US holds the strongest hand.
“The week is not going to be short on topics,” the US ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, told reporters at the White House.
She acknowledged that foreign leaders are curious about how the unpredictable Trump will manoeuvre.
“They are all very anxious to hear what he has to say,” Haley said. “And I think that he will make quite an impact.”
Trump’s appearance at the UN – highlighted by an address tomorrow before the world body – is his biggest moment on the world stage since taking office.
There is far more at stake than at the two economic summits in Europe he attended earlier this year.
As he welcomes leaders from nearly 200 nations to his home town of New York, he will press them to join US efforts to constrain missile and nuclear programmes in North Korea and Iran.
Tensions have risen sharply with both countries since Trump took office and assumed a more confrontational position than his predecessor, Barack Obama.
“The world is still trying to take the measure of this president,” said Jon Alterman, senior vice-president of the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “For a number of leaders, this is going to be their first chance to see him, to judge him, to try to get on his good side.”
In New York, Trump will hold a series of individual and smallgroup meetings with leaders from the Mideast, Latin America, Africa and Europe. He will headline the UN secretary-general’s reform campaign, a 120-nation initiative.
He will also continue two traditions of presidents at the UN: the major speech, tomorrow, and a diplomatic reception planned for tonight.
“I personally think he slaps the right people, he hugs the right people, and he comes out with the US being very strong in the end,” said Haley, who has seen a draft of Trump’s address.
In addition to Trump and Haley, Vice-President Mike Pence, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, National Security Adviser HR McMaster, the president’s adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner and his National Economic Council director, Gary Cohn, are all expected to attend events in New York this week. Two key foreign leaders will not be on hand: Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Obama is also expected to be in New York during the UN gathering, for an event sponsored by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation that will draw international figures.
Trump will discuss the North Korea crisis with the leaders of South Korea and Japan. North Korea test-fired a ballistic missile with the range to reach Guam on Friday, its latest in a series of provocations.
McMaster said on Friday that the world is “out of time” to stop North Korea from becoming a nuclear state.
“What we have to do is call on all nations, call on everyone to do everything we can to address this global problem short of war,” he told reporters at the briefing.
McMaster and Haley both insisted that the US does have military options in the dispute, contrary to conventional wisdom that the city of Seoul’s vulnerability to a North Korean counter-attack rules out the possibility of a strike.
The Trump administration is also seeking to extend and strengthen the Iranian nuclear deal that Obama signed and Trump has repeatedly maligned.