VIRTUAL REALITY: COVID EFFECT ON MULTILATERAL CONFERENCES

The UN General Assembly meeting in New York every September is likely to be held virtually. Consultations are on but it seems impossible for leaders of more than 100 countries to descend on New York given the proportions of the pandemic. The occasion is an important one: the 75th anniversary of the formation of the UN. UN General Assembly President Tijjani Muhammad-bande said a decision will be taken after consulting all member nations. The UN has cancelled or postponed numerous upcoming events including the five-year review of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty that had been scheduled to start in late April, and two major events in Mexico City in May and Paris in July to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Beijing women’s conference, which adopted a 150-page roadmap to achieve gender equality.

The World Economic Forum’s (WEF) annual gathering of the rich and powerful in Davos in January 2021 is on and it will focus on a postpandemic world. The theme of the 51st WEF Annual Meeting is ‘The Great Reset’ and it will be a twin summit with both in-person and virtual dialogues. The annual meeting will be open to everyone via an open-house policy in multiple hubs. Climate change will be one of the top discussion points.

The Boao Forum for Asia, China’s answer to Davos, has been postponed. It was scheduled for March 24 to 27. No new dates have been announced.

World Bank Spring Meeting was held virtually in April. The bank has announced its next meeting will be held in Washington, D.C. on October 17, 2020.

The Asian Development Bank annual meeting that was scheduled in May will now be held in September in South Korea.