Officials and heads of state from around the world were preparing for the United Nations 71st General Assembly in New York City on Sunday against a startling backdrop – an explosion on Saturday night less than two miles away that left 29 people injured and that New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo described as “an act of terrorism”.
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More than 130 heads of state and government and 50 foreign ministers arrived in NY to attend the UN General Assembly.
With a summit on refugees promoted as part of the 71st General Assembly of the UN, President Barack Obama is determined, he said, to do the utmost to “push other countries to follow European Union and USA leadership in devoting more resources to humanitarian aid and the protection of refugees”.
“This summit can not be reduced to speeches, and feel-good interviews, a dash of self-congratulations and we move on” he said in an address to the General Assembly hall.
The gathering in Manhattan, which experts and diplomats view as an annual renewal of focus on the world’s problems, will be the last that President Barack Obama and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will attend during their eight- and 10-year tenures in office, respectively. Portugal’s former Prime Minister Antonio Guterres has topped all four informal polls in the Security Council but he could be vetoed, possibly by Russian Federation, and rumors of new candidates are constant.
More than 100 world leaders have gathered to address a number of global issues, including the refugee and migrant crisis in Europe, the Syrian civil war, and North Korea’s recent nuclear weapons test.
“More countries must resettle more people who have been forced from their homes”, Ban told reporters Wednesday”. Former Portuguese Prime Minister and United Nations refugee chief Antonio Guterres held the lead in both polls, the AP reported.
“We are not going to solve the refugee crisis on Tuesday”, U.S. envoy Power said, “but I think you’ll see an important show of political will from leaders around the world”.
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A declaration is expected to come out of the one-day session as well as the formal “marrying” into the UN family by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) to work with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi.
