Page 6 - United Nations General Assembly

UN General Assembly president sees greatest nuclear risks in decades

UN General Assembly President Csaba Korosi has warned that the world is facing risks of nuclear proliferation and nuclear catastrophe not seen in decades

International Day for the Eradication of Poverty 2022: All you need to know

On December 22, 1992, the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) passed a resolution designating October 17 as the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty

UNGA demands Russia immediately reverse 'illegal' annexations in Ukraine

The UN General Assembly voted overwhelmingly on Wednesday to condemn Russia's attempted illegal annexation of four Ukrainian regions and demand that Moscow immediately reverse its actions. The vote in the 193-member world body was 143-5 with 35 abstentions, the strongest support from the General Assembly for Ukraine and against Russia of the four resolutions it has approved since Russian troops invaded their smaller neighbour February 24. Western nations engaged in intense behind-the-scenes lobbying ahead of the vote while Russia's ally Syria warned against isolating Moscow.

India votes against Russia's demand for secret ballot on Ukraine in UNGA

India voted to reject Russia's demand for a secret ballot in the UN General Assembly on a draft resolution to condemn Moscow's illegal annexation of four regions of Ukraine, with New Delhi favouring a public vote on the text along with over 100 other nations. The 193-member UN General Assembly on Monday voted on a motion by Albania that action on the draft resolution that would condemn Russia's illegal so-called referendums and attempted illegal annexation of the Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk, and Zaporizhzhia regions of Ukraine be taken by a recorded vote. Russia had demanded that the resolution be voted upon by secret ballot. Moscow's demand for a secret ballot was rejected after 107 UN member states, including India, voted in favour of a recorded vote. Only 13 nations voted in favour of Russia's call for a secret ballot while 39 abstained. Russia and China were among the countries that did not vote. After the motion to hold a recorded vote was adopted, Russia appealed against the .

Alarmed UN meets after Russian strikes kill nearly 14 people in Ukraine

The UN General Assembly started debating on Monday whether to demand that Russia reverse course on annexing four regions of Ukraine a discussion that came as Moscow's most extensive missile strikes in months alarmed much of the international community anew. The assembly's special session was planned before Monday's barrage, but countries spoke out on the widespread, Monday morning rush-hour attacks that killed at least 14 people and wounded scores. Ukrainian Ambassador Sergey Kyslytsya said some of his own close relatives were imperiled in a residential building, unable to take cover in a bomb shelter. By launching missile attacks on civilians sleeping in their homes or rushing toward children going to schools, Russia has proven once again that it is a terrorist state that must be deterred in the strongest possible ways, he said. Russia said it targeted military and energy facilities. But some of the missiles smashed into civilian areas: a park, a commuter minibus, and more. Russ

Ukraine, Russia clash at UNGA ahead of likely vote on Moscow's annexation

Ukraine and Russia clashed in the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) on Monday ahead of a likely vote on a resolution on whether to condemn Moscow's annexation of four Ukrainian regions

'New epoch' is arriving, says UN President Korosi on general assembly meet

The war in Ukraine and its global fallout transfixed the meeting of world leaders at the UN General Assembly this year. When it wasn't out front, it lurked in the background of virtually every speech. There were near-unanimous calls for an end to the seven-month war, with rich and poor countries decrying the fallout from the conflict widespread shortages and rising prices not only for food but for energy, inflation hitting the cost of living everywhere, and growing global inequality. The speeches and side meetings produced no breakthroughs toward peace, but they did put the top diplomats from Russia and Ukraine in the same room for the first time in many months, however briefly. And UN food chief David Beasley sounded an alarm that the war, on top of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, has left 50 million people in 45 countries knocking on famine's door". He warned of starvation, destabilisation of nations, riots, and mass migration if help doesn't arrive quickly. In his strongest, ..

EAM Jaishankar meets UN Chief Guterres, discusses global challenges

EAM S Jaishankar met UN chief Antonio Guterres on the margins of the 77th Session of the UN General Assembly in New York and discussed global challenges including the Ukraine conflict

India believes dialogue diplomacy the only way out: Jaishankar at UNGA

With the months-long Ukraine conflict raging on, India on Saturday told the UN General Assembly that it is on the side of peace and on the side that calls for dialogue and diplomacy as the only way out. "As the Ukraine conflict continues to rage, we are often asked whose side we are on. And our answer, each time, is straight and honest, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said in his address to the high-level UN General Assembly session here. He underlined that it is in the collective interest of the international community to work constructively, both within the United Nations and outside, in finding an early resolution to this conflict. Delivering the national statement, he said in this conflict India is on the side of peace and will remain firmly there. "We are on the side that respects the UN Charter and its founding principles. We are on the side that calls for dialogue and diplomacy as the only way out, he said. We are on the side of those struggling to make ends meet, ev

Floods left behind an 'ocean of human suffering': Pak PM Shehbaz Sharif

"Pakistan has never seen a more stark and devastating example of the impact of global warming," Sharif said about the disaster.

Russia-Ukraine war dominates discussions with 150 mentions at UNGA meet

After two years of discourse dominated by the coronavirus pandemic, this year's UN General Assembly has a new occupant of centre stage: the war in Ukraine. The pleas made by leaders from around the world for peace were both an altruistic amplification of besieged Ukrainians' plight as well as born from self-interest. As several speeches made clear, the repercussions of the Russian invasion have been felt even thousands of miles away. It is not just the dismay that we feel at seeing such deliberate devastation of cities and towns in Europe in the year 2022. We are feeling this war directly in our lives in Africa, Ghanaian President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo said on Wednesday. "Every bullet, every bomb, every shell that hits a target in Ukraine, hits our pockets and our economies in Africa. The speeches that elided any direct reference to the conflict were few, but the war resonated even in the absence of its direct invocation. Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, the president of Kazakhstan, n

Zelenskyy demands punishment for Russia's war on Ukraine in UN address

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy demanded punishment for Russia for the war in Ukraine, which has left thousands of people killed, displaced millions and reduced towns to rubble

Leaders of South Korea, Japan agree to work towards improving partnerships

The leaders of South Korea and Japan agreed to accelerate efforts to mend ties frayed over Japan's past colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula as they held their countries' first summit talks in nearly three years on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, both governments announced Thursday. The meeting occurred after Tokyo denied Seoul's earlier announcement they had agreed on the summit, in a sign of the delicate nature of their current relations. During their 30-minute meeting in New York on Wednesday, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida shared the need to improve bilateral ties and agreed to instruct their respective diplomats to step up talks for that, Yoon's office said in a statement. Kishida's office confirmed the hotel meeting. A separate Japanese Foreign Ministry statement said the two leaders agreed to promote cooperation between the two countries as well as with the United States. It said the leaders shared the need to restore

UK's PM Liz Truss slams Putin for turmoil, hails queen in debut UNGA speech

British Prime Minister Liz Truss has accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of making "saber-rattling threats" to cover his failed invasion of Ukraine, as she prepared to tell the United Nations that its founding principles were fracturing because of aggression by authoritarian states. In her debut speech to the UN General Assembly on Wednesday night, Truss will call the war in Ukraine a battle for "our values and the security of the whole world," and extol the late Queen Elizabeth II as a symbol of everything the U.N. stands for. The text of the speech was released in advance by Truss' office. Responding to a statement from Putin that he was mobilizing reservists and would use everything at his disposal to protect Russia an apparent reference to his nuclear arsenal -- Truss accused the Russian leader of "desperately trying to justify his catastrophic failures". "He is doubling down by sending even more reservists to a terrible fate," the speech said. "He is desperately trying t

Hope peeked through the gloom at 77th UNGA meet despite global morass

The head of the United Nations had just warned of a world gone badly wrong a place where inequity was on the rise, war was back in Europe, fragmentation was everywhere, the pandemic was pushing onward and technology was tearing things apart as much as it was uniting them. "Our world is in big trouble. Divides are growing deeper. Inequalities are growing wider. Challenges are spreading farther," Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Tuesday morning as he opened the general debate at the 77th UN General Assembly. And he was, on all counts, incontrovertibly correct. Yet barely an hour later, here were two UN delegates one Asian, one African grinning and standing in the sun-dappled lobby of the UN Secretariat Building, thrilled to be there in person on this particular morning as they snapped photos of each other, laughing along the way as they captured the moment. Hope: It can be hard to find anywhere these days, much less for the people who walk the floors of the United Nations, .

'Our world is in peril,' says UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres

The world's problems seized the spotlight Tuesday as the UN General Assembly's yearly meeting of world leaders opened with dire assessments of a planet beset by escalating crises and conflicts that an aging international order seems increasingly ill-equipped to tackle. After two years when many leaders weighed in by video because of the coronavirus pandemic, now presidents, premiers, monarchs and foreign ministers have gathered almost entirely in person for diplomacy's premier global event. But the tone is far from celebratory. Instead, it's the blare of a tense and worried world. We are gridlocked in colossal global dysfunction," Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said, adding that our world is in peril - and paralysed. He and others pointed to conflicts ranging from Russia's six-month-old war in Ukraine to the decades-long dispute between Israel and the Palestinians. Speakers worried about a changing climate, spiking fuel prices, food shortages, economic inequality, migration, ..

Israeli PM, Jordanian King discuss tensions in Middle East at UNGA meet

Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid and King Abdullah II of Jordan met on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York and discussed the tensions in the Middle East region

Turkish leader asks United Nations to be 'much more influential' at UNGA

Turkey's leader, overseeing a nation encircled by regional disputes, used his speech at the UN General Assembly on Tuesday to shine a spotlight on Turkish maneuvering in conflicts that span from Syria to Ukraine. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's speech comes as Turkey is beset by staggeringly high inflation officially at 80%, but more than double that, analysts say. Erdogan blamed inflation on globally high food and energy prices rather than his government's economic policies. His speech, however, focused more on laying out his view of Turkey's role in the world. He said Turkey is trying to be part of the solution in conflicts around the world. Touching on multiple hot-button issues, he spoke about the need for stability in Iraq, fair elections in Libya, food security in the Horn of Africa, the need for Palestinian statehood, the rights of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar and Uyghur Muslims in China, and standing up to anti-Muslim sentiment globally. His remarks also highlighted Turkey

Jaishankar consults Ethiopian FM to reinforce ties in education, trade

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar held talks with the Foreign Minister of Ethiopia Demeke Mekonnen Hassen and discussed reinforcing cooperation in the education and trade sectors

Nations' leaders meet at UN amid rising global turbulence, war, food crisis

Facing a complex set of challenges that try humanity as never before, world leaders convene at the United Nations this week under the shadow of Europe's first major war since World War II a conflict that has unleashed a global food crisis and divided major powers in a way not seen since the Cold War. The many facets of the Ukraine war are expected to dominate the annual meeting, which convenes as many countries and peoples confront growing inequality, an escalating climate crisis, the threat of multiple famines and an internet-fuelled tide of misinformation and hate speech all atop a coronavirus pandemic that is halfway through its third year. For the first time since the United Nations was founded atop the ashes of World War II, European nations are witnessing war in their midst waged by nuclear-armed neighbouring Russia. Its Feb 24 invasion not only threatens Ukraine's survival as an independent democratic nation but has leaders in many countries worrying about trying to preserve