At the UN rostrum on Wednesday, US President Joe Biden accused Russia of “brazenly violating” UN principles and made a gesture to developing countries by promising to food aid, while supporting Security Council reform.
As several Heads of State and Government did before him on Tuesday on the first day of this annual diplomatic high mass, Joe Biden frontally attacked Russia, which announced the mobilization of hundreds of thousands of reservists and brandished the threat of resort to nuclear weapons.
“This war destroys Ukraine’s right to exist, quite simply,” said the American president.
Russia, a permanent member of the Security Council, “has shamelessly violated the principles of the United Nations Charter” by seizing parts of its neighbor’s territory, he insisted.
French President Emmanuel Macron, who had himself accused Russia of being responsible for a “return of imperialism and colonialism”, on Wednesday called on the international community to “put maximum pressure” on Vladimir Cheese fries.
While the countries of the South are increasingly annoyed by the fact that Westerners are focusing on Ukraine despite the multiple crises suffered by humanity all over the planet, the American president has reached out to developing countries.
“Feeding the Children”
In particular, he announced on Wednesday a new aid of 2.9 billion US dollars to fight against food insecurity in the world, which is added to a sum of 6.9 billion already promised this year by Washington.
“In any country in the world, whatever the reasons for our divisions, when parents cannot feed their children, nothing else matters, nothing,” he insisted.
Americans, Europeans and Africans pledged in a joint statement on Tuesday to act “with urgency, scale and concert to meet the urgent food needs of hundreds of millions of people around the world”.
The UN Secretary General, reviewing the multiple crises facing a world that has not been so divided for a long time, also warned against “a winter of global discontent [qui] looms on the horizon”.
“The purchasing power crisis is unleashed, confidence is crumbling, inequalities are exploding, our planet is burning”, and despite everything, “we are blocked by a colossal global dysfunction”, he lamented on Tuesday during his speech. opening.
Joe Biden also said he was in favor of a major reform of the Security Council by increasing the number of permanent members (currently 5: United States, United Kingdom, France, Russia and China) and non-permanent (currently 10 ).
A demand in particular from Japan and many developing countries. “It is time to uphold the just and legitimate African demand for the reform of the Security Council”, had thus insisted on Tuesday at the podium the Senegalese President, Macky Sall, at the head of the African Union.
Although this issue has been mentioned by several leaders, Ukraine will undoubtedly remain at the top of many leaders’ concerns for the rest of the week.
In an expected speech, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky demanded “just punishment” against Russia on Wednesday before the UN, strongly denouncing the invasion of his country by Russian troops and calling for the establishment of a special court. “A crime has been committed against Ukraine,” he said in a video message, while believing that Russia should be deprived of its right of veto in the Security Council.
Ukraine will also be the subject of a meeting of the Security Council on Thursday, between foreign ministers, therefore in theory in the presence of Sergei Lavrov, who leads the Russian delegation to the UN in the absence of Vladimir Putin.
Human rights and nuclear
The Iranian nuclear file and the demonstrations which are multiplying in Iran after the death of a young woman detained by the morality police have managed to make their way to the forefront of the international scene.
“Iranian leaders should notice that people are unhappy with the direction they have taken. They can take another path,” British Foreign Minister James Cleverly told AFP on the sidelines of the Assembly.
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi defended himself in a speech lasting more than 30 minutes, accusing the West of having “double standards” regarding women’s rights.
He also assured that his country “is not seeking to build or obtain nuclear weapons”, and doubted the sincerity of the American government to revive the 2015 agreement which was supposed to guarantee that the Islamic Republic could not acquire nuclear weapons. nuclear weapons in exchange for the lifting of sanctions on its economy.
“We will not allow Iran to acquire nuclear weapons,” replied Joe Biden, believing that it is “impossible to win a nuclear war and [qu’]it should not be carried out”.