- Leaders from at least 145 countries are expected to attend, with some notable exceptions: France, the United Kingdom, China and Russia will all be absent.
- A “significant section” of Biden’s speech to the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday will be devoted to the war in Ukraine.
- It is the first time since the beginning of the war that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will personally attend the UN summit.
U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin (l) and U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas (r) watch as President Joe Biden speaks in the Roosevelt Room about the government’s response and recovery efforts in Maui, Hawaii, and the ongoing response to Hurricane Idalia speaks The White House in Washington, DC, August 30, 2023.
Saul Loeb | AFP | Getty Images
President Joe Biden will address the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday, where he will promote democracy and advocate for greater support for Ukraine.
For Biden, it is another opportunity to advance the ideas of diplomacy and democracy over those of aggressive autocracies, as he did at the recent Group of 20 summit earlier this month.
“[Biden] “Will lay out to the world the steps he and his administration have taken to advance a vision of American leadership built on the premise of working with others to solve the world’s most pressing problems,” the White House national security adviser said , Jake Sullivan gave a briefing on Friday.
With a few notable exceptions, leaders from at least 145 countries will attend: France, the United Kingdom, China and Russia will all be absent, meaning four of the five countries that hold permanent seats on the UN Security Council will not be present.
The absence of China and Russia gives Biden the opportunity to advance relations between the United States and smaller developing countries.
Biden is scheduled to meet on Wednesday with Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, a key leader of the Global South who has also pushed for peace talks between Russia and Ukraine. Lula has argued that the United States and other Western nations are prolonging the war through their defense support.
The President will also meet with the heads of state and government of the five Central Asian states of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. This is the first time a US president has done this together. He will also meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. It is the first time the two have met since the Prime Minister was re-elected last fall.
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This is the first time since the start of the war in February 2022 that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will personally attend the UN summit. He gave a recorded speech to the panel at last year’s meeting.
“President Biden looks forward to hearing President Zelensky’s perspective on all of this and for the world and the United States, for the American people, to reaffirm his commitment to continue to be a global leader in supporting Ukraine,” Sullivan said .
A “significant section” of Biden’s speech will be devoted to the war in Ukraine, Sullivan said.
“He will talk about the fundamental fact that the United Nations Charter … reflects the fundamental premise that countries cannot attack their neighbors by force and steal territory from them,” Sullivan said, referring to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine . “That was also a core idea of the G20 declaration last weekend.”
Biden’s message of support for Ukraine is complicated by the fact that a handful of hardline Republicans in Congress are actively opposing more funding.
The White House is calling for $24 billion in additional aid for Ukraine and hopes it will pass along with a continuing resolution to keep the government open while budget negotiations continue. The measure has bipartisan support in the Senate but is being held up in the House, where some members, such as Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., have said they will not support additional aid.
Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy finds himself in a precarious position on the Ukraine issue, as his narrow majority leaves him at the mercy of every member of his caucus. Conservatives last week rejected McCarthy’s proposal to pair aid to Ukraine with additional border funding.
Zelensky will travel to Washington, DC on Thursday to meet Biden at the White House and speak with lawmakers. Unlike his visit in December, Zelensky will not address a joint session of Congress. Rep. Mike Turner, R-Ohio, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said Zelensky would be “very, very convincing.”
“Zelenskyy is a great speaker,” Turner said on CBS News Sunday. “He really makes the case better than anyone.”
It’s a position with which the White House agrees.
“He has proven over the course of the last 18, 19 months that there is no better advocate for his country, for his people and for the urgent and ongoing need for countries like the United States and our allies and partners to step up.” to provide the necessary tools and resources that Ukraine needs,” Sullivan said.