UN retools gathering in time of pandemic
UNITED NATIONS – With COVID-19 still careening across the planet, the annual gathering of its leaders in New York will be replaced this year by a global patchwork of prerecorded speeches.
As U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres put it: “The COVID-19 pandemic is a crisis unlike any in our lifetimes, and so this year’s General Assembly session will be unlike any other, too.”
This is the first time in the 75-year history of the United Nations that there will be no in-person meeting.
Only one diplomat from each of the U.N.’s 193 member nations will be allowed into the vast General Assembly hall. All will be socially distanced and masked. Guterres said the virtual meeting will see speeches from “the largest number of heads of state and government ever” – 171, according to the latest speakers list.
World leaders are not barred from coming to speak. But presidents, prime ministers, monarchs and ministers travel with large entourages and at a time of pandemic and quarantine requirements, including in New York City, the General Assembly members agreed crowds needed to be avoided.
Turkish diplomat and politician Volkan Bozkir, who took over the one-year presidency of the General Assembly on Tuesday, said 10 leaders wanted to come to the U.N. to speak, including Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. He lamented that they aren’t able to because of U.S. quarantine requirements.
This leaves U.S. President Donald Trump as the one leader who could travel to New York. Even though reports say he will not be appearing in person, the metal barricades police always put in place for a presidential visit went up Friday along First Avenue outside the United Nations.