The theme for the United Nations General Assembly this year is incredibly apt

For once the blurb might actually match what will happen, writes David Harding

Leaders, including Liz Truss, are beginning to gather in New York right now (Getty)

The United Nations General Assembly (Unga) is a strange beast. It happens every year, seems in the grand scheme of things wildly unimportant and just an excuse for world leaders to display their egos by addressing the biggest talking shop in the world, but at the same time is compelling and can produce some moments of true history.

An angry Nikita Khrushchev banging his shoe to get attention in 1960; Idi Amin trying to praise Ted Heath by comparing him to Adolf Hitler; Hugo Chavez calling George W Bush the devil and complaining about the smell in the hall are worthy historical events. They might be topped by what could happen this year.

Leaders are beginning to gather in New York right now, including Liz Truss who will put her much-criticised speaking skills on the world stage, for the 77th Unga and on Wednesday the assembly kicks off in earnest as US president Joe Biden takes to the stage to speak.

Although it is always instructive to hear the most powerful people in the world talk, this year’s event could arguably be the most important in decades. The war in Ukraine, the simmering tensions between the US and China, the West and Russia, global economic recovery after Covid, climate change and its growing impact, the widening disparities between rich and poor states, the growth of political extremism, global challenges to democracy, and the growing lack of faith in global political institutions should all serve to make this year’s event particularly tense.

The theme for the Unga this year is a “watershed moment” – and for once the blurb might actually match what will happen. As an example of how the political world is turned upside down, Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro, seen as a political joke in his own country just a decade ago, was the first to speak.

China’s XI Jinping will not attend – and nor will Vladimir Putin. Russia and its disastrous war in Ukraine, though, is expected to be the main topic for the Unga. Although Putin will not be in New York, his cold-eyed foreign minister Sergei Lavrov will be – and will no doubt delight in putting over Russia’s point of view in the US, the country which his boss has claimed this week cannot hold on to its world domination.

And as the world is turned towards what is happening in New York, that could mean important developments taking place at the same time in Moscow or Ukraine for the war. This week could really be a long time in politics.

Yours,

David Harding

International editor