More than 90 world leaders attend the UN General Assembly. This is what you should know

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New York (CNN) - Sounds like a noise from the digestive tract. But this is how connoisseurs pronounce the acronym of the annual General Assembly of the United Nations that will take place this week: UNGA. And when it's over, world leaders and a cast of thousands of people will want to take some kind of medicine.

During a single week of September every year, everyone, from kings, presidents and prime ministers to food tasters, flies to New York to the headquarters of the United Nations, in what has become a cliché joke about “quick diplomatic appointments " But there is nothing funny about the top priority in the year 74 of UNGA, which is the global climate emergency.

The Climate Summit

The UN has organized a special Climate Action Summit for Monday, September 23, before the formal speeches of the Heads of State and Government that normally attract more attention. Breaking with tradition, the UN Secretary General, António Guterres, has told the leaders of the countries not to go on the podium on Monday without “concrete and transformative plans” to stop the rise in global temperatures, achieve neutrality of the carbon and reduce carbon emissions by 45 percent. Personalities with proposals have been told that they only have three minutes to speak.

United Nations Headquarters in New York. (JOHANNES EISELE / AFP / Getty Images)

How concrete the results of the summit will be is not really clear. The UN does not have a global climate army to tour the planet and stop pollution, so it is up to the 193 UN nations to take action. What the UN really will do is what some feel that the organization unfortunately does best: collect speeches and other storms of environmental ideas in a report.

The goal is to pressure world leaders to do more, as the weather emergency worsens. Some have made it a priority: German Chancellor Angela Merkel will be in town for the climate summit, even though she will skip the rest of the week. On the contrary, the president of the United States, Donald Trump, will be in the city, but the climatic summit will be skipped, and will instead organize a session on religious persecution in the same building. Trump has previously avoided international climate meetings.

Let the general debate begin

The so-called "general debate" begins on Tuesday, September 24, and the first country to speak is Brazil, by long tradition. It will be the first appearance in the UNGA of the Brazilian leader Jair Bolsonaro, who recently promised to attend even in a wheelchair, after a recent surgery. Expect fireworks: after the great global concern over massive fires and deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon, Bolsonaro is likely to face climate defenders. He has already promised a "speech that is different from the previous ones."

After him will be Donald Trump, who has previously joined the teleprompter, and last year provoked the laughter of the delegates while praising his own administration.

The volume of Trump's appearances and his unpredictability have dominated the last two years in the General Assembly. Last year, he surprised the Chinese Foreign Minister by accusing Beijing of interfering in US elections while both sat at the Security Council table.

Trump was also the first president of the United States. UU. to enter the building and take a few steps before stopping in front of the cameras and shouting at the reporters, to answer questions about hot topics for three days. "He completely absorbed the oxygen from UNGA," says Richard Gowan, director of the UN at the International Crisis Center.

The elephant in the secretariat

This year, a mysterious attack on the oil fields of Saudi Arabia has provided a late drama to UNGA, while US officials point the finger at Iran, despite its rejection and that the Houthi rebels in Yemen assumed responsibility for the attack. . The United States, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Yemen and other actors in the Middle East will be under one roof for days. Some cannot get too far. Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif has been affected by the restrictions of the United States movement, which confine him to a small area near the UN headquarters.

A senior UN official said that "tensions in the Gulf will be the backdrop for many events and meetings." Which brings us to the most important question on the eve of UNGA: Will President Trump meet with Iranian President Rouhani?

Nothing is planned between the two leaders, although both will be in the UN building in the middle of the parade of delegations. The threats and rhetoric launched by both sides have been fierce. The United States imposed more sanctions on Iran on Friday and Iranians say they don't need to talk.

There seems to be "zero options for a meeting," says Gowan. "Instead of a diplomatic advance, we are likely to see a war of words." The UN is destined to be a neutral ground for the parties in contention to hold a dialogue and casual face-to-face meetings are exactly what this international forum is for. In 2000, the then president of the United States Bill Clinton and the president of Cuba Fidel Castro paused briefly before each other in a corridor, when relations between nations were cooling. There is still a debate about whether there was a handshake.

Who comes to UNGA?

As of Friday, 91 heads of state had pledged to attend. The president of France, Emmanuel Macron, will be in New York offering an expanded French leadership role as a global mediator, while the Trump administration withdraws the United States from international forums.

With a significant concern at home for the planned withdrawal of the United Kingdom from Europe, Boris Johnson will make his first appearance at UNGA in his role as prime minister. There are talks about brexit scheduled with the leader of Ireland and others.

And the leaders of India, Narendra Modi, of Pakistan, Imran Khan, will attend and give speeches in the General Assembly. There are no scheduled talks between them for now, as tensions remain high because of India's treatment of Kashmir, a disputed territory.

And of new interest to the American public will be the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, who debuts at UNGA right in the middle of a growing controversy: the US Congress. UU. He wants to know if Trump pressured him to investigate the son of Joe Biden, who had business ties in the country. Biden, of course, is one of the main contenders for the US Democratic primary. And he could end up challenging Trump for the presidency next year.

There are also UN meetings, large and small, about Libya, Yemen, Somalia, Sudan and Myanmar. In addition to the marathon hours of speeches, consider this: 630 meetings have been requested. The United Nations defines a meeting as a meeting of 15 or more people held within the UN for a maximum of three hours.

"There are no fewer challenges than last year" that affect geopolitics around the world, said British UN ambassador Karen Pierce. Expect protesters near headquarters all day.

The list of leaders who will not be present this year is also interesting: Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese leader Xi Jinping rarely attend, nor will they be present this year. The Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanayhu, has canceled, amid post-election confusion in his country. Netanyahu, a former ambassador to the UN, enjoys his speeches by the General Assembly, often with accessories of charts and diagrams.

The Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau, had been included as a speaker, but no longer comes as a result of the appearance of multiple racist photographs of his past, just before the national elections.

The questioned Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro has sent his regards, but he will not leave his country full of agitation. The president of the National Assembly, Juan Guaidó, who has been recognized as president of the country by more than 50 nations, is unlikely to appear, but his representatives will pressure the UN to recognize Guaidó in the future.

Although the United Nations facilities are considered international ground, the United States remains the host. According to the agreement of the "host country", it is assumed that visitors traveling on official UN businesses should not be limited, and there was a time when the United States imposed a generous 40-kilometer radio cord on international visitors He didn't like them.

But this year, the United States is not holding back. In addition to the movement restrictions on Zarif from Iran, two Cuban diplomats living in New York who had planned to participate in UNGA were expelled Thursday by the Trump administration. And the remaining diplomats in the Cuban mission face the toughest restrictions among all countries: they are not allowed to leave the narrow island of Manhattan.

And with all the traffic blocks and security measures, New Yorkers and tourists will also feel that no one can leave the island during this week of madness.

Elizabeth Joseph and Caitlin Hu in New York and Taylor Barnes in Atlanta contributed to this report.

UN General Assembly