UNITED NATIONS — This year’s U.N. gathering of world leaders put an immediate spotlight Tuesday on deep differences on tackling crises from North Korea to global warming: France’s president urged world leaders to work together, while America’s emphasized nations’ own sovereignty.
And U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned that the threat of a nuclear attack is at its highest level since the end of the Cold War and cautioned about the dangers of fiery rhetoric.
All three men made their debut appearances at the U.N. General Assembly, where presidents, prime ministers and monarchs are gathered for six days of discussion of matters ranging from nuclear peril to climate change to refugees. But on day one, the spotlight was on U.S. President Donald Trump and France’s Emmanuel Macron.
Macron, a centrist who embraced internationalism during his campaign, vowed to press ahead with the Paris accord to combat global warming, although the U.S. has said it’s withdrawing from the agreement. In his speech and a subsequent news conference, Macron said he respects Trump’s decision but thinks it’s a mistake and will continue trying to persuade the American to reconsider.
Macron also said France won’t “close any door to dialogue” with North Korea and said it would be “a grave error” to unwind the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, which faces strong criticism from Trump. Macron also called for investing in education and health and proposed appointing a U.N. representative for press freedom.
Seven decades after the end of World War II and the creation of the United Nations, international bodies are confronting doubts that they are merely venues for “a game for diplomats sitting around a table” and come up short on addressing such major threats as climate change.
But “today, more than ever before, we need multilateralism” to work on global warming, war, terrorism and other issues, Macron said.
“We can only address those challenges thought multilateralism,” he said, “not through survival of the fittest.”
Israel sees Iran as its most dangerous adversary because of its nuclear program, development of long-range missiles and support for militant groups in the region. Netanyahu warned that Israel would fiercely defend itself, but he made a point of telling everyday Iranians that Israel doesn’t see them as enemies — he even broke into Farsi, one of Iran’s main languages, to say: “You are our friends.”
Guterres, meanwhile, put “nuclear peril” as the leading global threat and added that “fiery talk can lead to fatal misunderstandings.”
His message was implicitly directed at North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, but also at the U.S. and Trump. The two have traded tough rhetoric amid Pyongyang’s continuing nuclear and missile tests.
Guterres said a solution to North Korea’s activities must be political. “This is a time for statesmanship,” he stressed.
Beyond the nuclear threat, Guterres painted a grim picture of a troubled world facing grave challenges as people see rising insecurity, inequality, conflict and climate change in a world of polarized politics and fragmented societies.
“We are a world in pieces. We need to be a world at peace,” he said, later tweeting that “only together, as truly United Nations, can we build a peaceful world.”