UN Secretary General: ‘A different General Assembly’

The COVID-19 pandemic is a crisis unlike any in our lifetimes, and so this year’s General Assembly session will be unlike any other,’ the UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres said during the opening of the session.

Despite the impediments due to the health emergency that make it impossible to gather high dignitaries in the same place, the general debate next week will feature a video conference in which 170 heads of State and Government will take part, the highest number of leaders registered so far.

Technology will allow the most important annual UN event to take place remotely, in the midst of these Covid-19—related complex circumstances.

The member states will adopt on Monday, September 21st a declaration marking the 75th anniversary of the United Nations, which expresses the commitment to a revitalized multilateralism, Guterres announced.

He was also invited to inform on a common agenda for the future, and it will be an important process for reflection, with detailed analysis and recommendations, as he said.

In Guterres’s words, along with the Covid-19 pandemic, which is the main threat to global security at the moment, the world faces closely related challenges, such as climate change.