Pope Francis to Address U.N.’s Largest Gathering of World Leaders

Pope Francis to Address U.N.’s Largest Gathering of World Leaders 

International New York Times | 25 September 2015

More than 150 presidents and prime ministers are scheduled to follow Francis at the development summit meeting that starts Friday. Then, on Monday, world leaders are scheduled to begin the annual debate, approaching the podium one by one under the illuminated dome of the General Assembly hall, to advance their agendas and, inevitably, take swipes at their rivals.

The two sessions, which United Nations officials call historic, feature an all-star lineup of autocrats, princes and populists, some of whom rarely show up at the General Assembly.

A security officer patrolled First Avenue outside the United Nations headquarters on Tuesday in New York. Pope Francis will speak there on Friday morning. Credit Andrew Burton/Getty Images

UNITED NATIONS — It will be the largest gathering of presidents and prime ministers ever at the United Nations. Some of them will assemble here under one roof for the first time in years, and their job will be to wrestle with global crises that they stubbornly disagree on, including climate change, the war in Syria, and a historic exodus of people fleeing conflict and hunger.

But even before they start lecturing one another at the United Nations General Assembly this week, the leaders will come in for a heavy dose of moral flogging by an enormously popular leader known for taking swings at the global elite: Pope Francis. 

This is the first time a pope will address such a large gathering of world leaders at the United Nations, according to Ban Ki-moon, the United Nations secretary general. Francis speaks in the General Assembly on Friday morning, before the official start of a global summit meeting where an ambitious set of development goals are to be adopted, including reducing economic inequality and offering good schools for all.

Lifting up the poor is a signature issue for Francis. Yet, he could give world leaders a tongue lashing for ravaging the environment, failing to protect people from mass atrocities and rejecting refugees who show up at their borders.

All are transnational challenges that defy easy answers. In a way, some argue, only a figure of the pope’s stature has the global popularity and moral authority (though no enforcement powers) to make the world powers take heed.

“Governments and their leaders are not easily swayed by moral appeals, even from the pope, but they do respond to their public opinion,” said Louise Fréchette, a former deputy secretary general of the United Nations. She added that the pope’s emphasis on issues like climate change and refugees could put pressure on governments to act.

It is also a boon for the United Nations. “His presence,” Ms. Fréchette said, “underlines the continued centrality of the institution.”

The secretary general certainly seemed to be looking to Francis for support nudging the 193 nations that make up the organization. “We expect that he will send his spiritual guidance to all the member states of the United Nations,” Mr. Ban said, a bit wistfully, at a recent news conference. “I really count on his leadership.

More than 150 presidents and prime ministers are scheduled to follow Francis at the development summit meeting that starts Friday. Then, on Monday, world leaders are scheduled to begin the annual debate, approaching the podium one by one under the illuminated dome of the General Assembly hall, to advance their agendas and, inevitably, take swipes at their rivals.

The two sessions, which United Nations officials call historic, feature an all-star lineup of autocrats, princes and populists, some of whom rarely show up at the General Assembly.

It will be the first visit by Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany in seven years and Xi Jinping’s first as president of China. President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia was last here a decade ago. His speech, scheduled for Monday morning, shortly after President Obama’s, will be among the most closely watched.

The General Assembly conclave will produce the first meeting of Mr. Putin and Mr. Obama in nearly a year. The Russian envoy to the United Nations, Vitaly I. Churkin, would say only that he hoped frayed relations between the two countries would improve.

“I don’t think it’s a second Cold War. But it’s very uncomfortable,” he said in a recent interview.

Syria will be front and center in this year’s deliberations. Russia and the United States are planning to host rival sessions, one in the General Assembly and one in the Security Council, on countering terrorist groups in the Middle East. The foreign ministers of all five permanent members of the Council — Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States — will also discuss Syria at a lunch hosted by Mr. Ban.

Those meetings come at a pivotal moment in the Syrian conflict, as Russia sends more men and matériel to aid Mr. Assad’s government, prompting American officials to open up military-to-military talks with the Russians. British and American jets have conducted airstrikes on what they call Islamic State positions. France has announced that it will begin airstrikes soon.

The flurry of diplomacy may simply highlight the failure to prevent “the scourge of war,” as the United Nations Charter set out as its principal goal 70 years ago. Beyond Syria, the conflicts in Darfur, in western Sudan, and in Yemen and Libya continue, often with the involvement of regional and world powers.

Graphic

How Syrians Are Dying

Over four years of war has forced more than four million to flee the country, fueling a migrant crisis in the Middle East and Europe.

OPEN Graphic

“Everybody is saying, ‘Somebody else has to do something.’ No one is saying, ‘What can we do?’ ” Gerard van Bohemen, the permanent representative of New Zealand, one of the rotating members of the Security Council, said this month.

At the General Assembly podium, the remarks of Iran’s president, Hassan Rouhani, will be closely dissected in Iran and elsewhere for signs of how Iran’s relationship with the outside world will change in the wake of the nuclear deal with six global powers. The influential Saudi foreign minister, Prince Adel bin Ahmed al-Jubeir, will speak as his country continues its military campaign against Houthi insurgents in Yemen. The Hungarian president will attend amid broad criticism for putting up barriers to refugees crossing Europe. President Raúl Castro of Cuba will come for the first time in decades, on the heels of a historic thaw with the United States.

And amid all this, Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, will hoist the Palestinian flag for the first time at the United Nations.

All told, at least 12,000 people are expected in New York for the assembly. Here is what to expect on the three top issues.

First, with a deadline approaching for a global climate accord, there will be a great deal of attention on how national leaders pledge in the coming days to cut emissions of planet-warming greenhouse gases. While major polluters like China, the United States and the European Union have announced their plans, other big nations — including Brazil and India — have not.

Second, with bitter disagreement on what to do about the exodus of refugees and displaced people worldwide, the foreign ministers of the seven richest nations — the Group of 7, as they are known — will meet on Tuesday. The secretary general is also leading a General Assembly meeting on how to address the refugee crisis in Europe, though he is unlikely to propose any specific solution.

European leaders had hoped for a small victory before their top leaders arrived, but that now seems elusive: a Security Council resolution to authorize their soldiers to inspect and seize vessels suspected in human smuggling in the Mediterranean Sea. That measure is facing pushback from African leaders who object to authorizing military action.

And then there is Syria.

The Islamic State has spread swiftly across the country since world leaders gathered here last year for their annual conclave. Russian and Western diplomats have continued to snipe at one another over who is more to blame for the chaos there — the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, or the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL.

The Western position on Mr. Assad’s future has clearly shifted since last year. The United States and its allies have dropped their public calls for his immediate ouster, saying only that Mr. Assad should step down by the end of a transitional political process.

“We all have to be creative in overcoming this divide,” one Security Council diplomat said this week, adding that even Mr. Assad’s most vociferous Western critics wanted to avoid a wholesale purge of his government. It would suffice, the diplomat said, if “tens, not hundreds,” were to be removed. The person asked not to be named because of the delicacy of diplomatic negotiations.

Russia welcomes the fact that American airstrikes have avoided the Assad government’s positions on the battlefield.

“To me it’s absolutely clear that one of the very serious concerns of American government is that Assad regime will fall and ISIL will take over Damascus and the United States will be blamed for that,” said Mr. Churkin, the Russian envoy.

Meanwhile, the war grinds into its fifth year, having killed a quarter million people and uprooted 11 million from their homes.