Today the Palazzo di Vetro has reopened its doors for the 81st General Assembly Onu which this year chose as theme “Restoring trust, managing transformation: A United Nations that delivers for all”. For the event are expected almost 130 heads of state and government that will alternate on the podium until Saturday 26 September and then close Monday 28. A weighted choice to add the sitting on Saturday, which the Assembly took by accepting the recommendation of the Secretary General to keep the debate even that day, to give the floor to as many speakers as possible.
Antonio Guterres, with what he is, in fact, the last speech of his mandate as Secretary-General. He chose to focus on the Middle East, where, he said, “the conflicts are multiplying by chain”. Referring directly to the leaders present in the classroom, he invited them to “exploit at best this high-level week to promote de-escalation and dialogue”, asking that “fighting must cease, humanitarian aid must be able to flow, and rights and freedoms of navigation must be fully restored, in accordance with international law”.
After Guterres, the President of the General Assembly, the diplomat of Bangladesh Khalilur Rahman, who formally gave way to the debate. The first country to intervene was Brazil, which since 1955 traditionally opens the national declarations, followed by the United States, host country, with President Donald Trump, intervened in the morning. On Tuesday morning, King Abdullah II of Jordan, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani.
The agenda of this 81st session touches some of the hottest themes of international current affairs: wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, action for climate, preparation for pandemics, nuclear weapons, as well as the race to the succession of Guterres as the next Secretary General. Among these, a central place occupies this year artificial intelligence, with different approaches emerged among the various leaders.
Asked about the Italian position, the Vice-President of the Council and Minister of Foreign Affairs Antonio Tajani, at the head of the Italian delegation, explained in the press point that was held in the margin of the work of the Assemplea: “We are in favour of artificial intelligence, it is a very useful tool for growth, but we also say that we must not be subjected to artificial intelligence. It must always be the person to drive artificial intelligence, and not vice versa.”.
The Turtle Bay district, which houses the United Nations headquarters, returns to be the nerve center of world diplomacy and the city around it immediately notices. In fact, the streets around the Palazzo di Vetro are transennate, the traffic on much of the East Side slows down almost to stop, and the parades of blue cars with escort become part of the daily landscape for those who work or live there. It is the same ritual that is repeated every year in September: a piece of Manhattan that for a week stops being only New York and literally becomes the center of the world.
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