UN Hosts Tense Virtual Meetings in First Session Since Onset of COVID-19 Pandemic
The United Nations General Assembly met via video conference for the first time in its 75 year history due to the COVID-19 pandemic last week. Despite the absence of bodies in the room, tensions on the Zoom call were as high as any previous meeting, with nations clashing over COVID-19 management. Source.
On Monday, September 21st, the United Nations celebrated what should have been a momentous 75th anniversary, the next day, however, the UN was relegated, much like nearly every other event this year, to holding its first virtual meeting. The nearly two-week-long meeting beginning Tuesday has been primarily comprised of prerecorded videos save for an in-person speech given by the Secretary-General to a nearly empty room of mask-adorned diplomats who sat socially distanced from one another.
Many hoped the UN meeting would bolster diplomatic relations as countries struggle to contain the coronavirus. However, despite calls for cooperation in the predominantly virtual setting, some tensions were still evident. In a security council meeting, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called out the world’s efforts saying, “The pandemic is a clear test of international cooperation – a test we have essentially failed,” before adding that he fears for the worst should the world treat the climate crisis the same. Russia went as far as threatening to not recognize the videos submitted by leaders and demanded that ambassadors to each country stand to present their video prior to its showing. Meanwhile, the US and China showed no signs in calming relations as President Trump called for Beijing to be held “accountable” for the spread of the virus, to which the Chinese ambassador responded that such claims were “baseless” that and the US has “created enough troubles for the world already. … The US should understand that blaming others will not solve its own problems”. French President Macron called for cooperation and multilateralism in order to avoid being “collectively condemned to a pas de deux” by the U.S. and China while everyone else is “reduced to being nothing but the sorry spectators of a collective impotence.”
While the focus was predominately on the global response to COVID-19, topics of the speeches did vary. Iranian President Rouhani focused on US sanctions which he likened to the murder of American George Floyd by a police officer in June, he compared the sanctions to the murder by saying, “We instantly recognize the feet kneeling on the neck as the feet of arrogance on the neck of independent nations,”. Other topics to be discussed include nuclear arms, biodiversity, and the conflicts in Libya and the Central African Republic.