UNITED NATIONS | US President Joe Biden on Wednesday accused Russia of having “brazenly violated” the principles of the United Nations, making a gesture towards developing countries by promising food aid and supporting reform of the Security Council.
• Read also: Ukraine: Putin mobilizes 300,000 men and threatens the West
• Read also: Mobilization: rush on plane tickets to leave Russia
As several Heads of State and Government did before him on Tuesday on the first day of this annual diplomatic high mass, Joe Biden attacked Russia head-on, 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 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 Putin.
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 Wednesday a new aid of 2.9 billion dollars to fight against food insecurity in the world, which is added to a sum of 6.9 billion dollars 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, has also warned against “a winter of global discontent (which) is looming 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.
AFP
Joe Biden and UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres.
Joe Biden on the other hand 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) 15.
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,” Senegalese President Macky Sall, head of the African Union, insisted on Tuesday.
Iran, human rights and nuclear
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.
The speech of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday at the end of the day is thus eagerly awaited, even if he is not in New York and has obtained the exceptional authorization of the Member States of the UN to express himself via video message.
Ukraine will also be the subject of a meeting of the Security Council on Thursday at the level of 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.
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” when it comes to 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 it must not be waged”.