World leaders gather at UN for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic.

The UN gang is finally getting back together in person, after three years of leaders speaking by video due to the global pandemic.

 But many leaders from the 193 UN member countries were in the United Kingdom for the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II on Monday, forcing their missions to the UN to scramble to reschedule speeches and rendezvous.
Perhaps most prominent among the changes, US President Joe Biden will speak on Wednesday morning instead of taking America's traditional second speaking slot after Brazil on Tuesday.

 Biden has also built in time for chats with country leaders in London, which may limit some discussions in Manhattan.

According to the UN, it “stems from the recognition that the world is at a critical moment … due to complex and interconnected crises”.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the gathering was happening “at a time of great peril”, with the world “blighted by war, battered by climate chaos, scarred by hate, and shamed by poverty, hunger, and inequality”.

The war in Ukraine, climate change and nuclear disarmament are likely to dominate speeches and discussions during the annual gathering that starts on Tuesday at the UN headquarters.

Speakers on Tuesday will include Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, French President Emmanuel Macron and Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani. 

United States President, Joe Biden will address the Assembly today (21st ).

Every UN member is invited to send a delegation to the UNGA – the most representative body of the UN system. Each member state is allowed an equal vote when deciding on resolutions.

This year’s session will take place in person for the first time since COVID-19 was declared a pandemic in March 2020. For the past two years, heads of state were allowed to submit video statements due to pandemic restrictions.

Meanwhile, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky will be the only world leader to speak by video, occupied as he is by the war in his country. The Assembly on Friday overrode Russian objections to permit Zelensky to speak virtually.

Chinese President Xi Jinping also sent their Foreign Ministers to the UNGA.

The theme for this year’s UNGA is, “A watershed moment: transformative solutions to interlocking challenges”.

The great majority of UN membership strongly opposes Russia's war in Ukraine. Expect Western countries to use their official speeches to bash Moscow. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will speak on Saturday, but no Western country has said if they have bilateral planned with the Russian visitor.

Others fear Russia's war has displaced other issues of global importance, like the climate crisis. "This would have been a climate UNGA but Russia has taken care of that with its invasion of Ukraine," one diplomat said.

"It does occupy a lot of space," said Stefan Dujarric, spokesman for the UN Secretary General, during a press briefing on Monday
. 
"Because we know that the war in Ukraine is having a global impact, on food, on grain, on the energy crisis. It's having a knock-on impact on the fight against climate change, where -- because of the energy crisis -- we see member states reverting back to polluting sources of energy."

"It is however not stopping the Secretary General from raising all these other issues," he added.

(Agencies)