WORLD BRIEFING: September 19, 2023
Several leaders highlighted at the first day of the UNGA global inequality. Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel said debt was holding developing nations back from improving living standards and tackling climate change. It was a theme also picked upon by Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, who said: "It's easy to come here every year to make the same promises and not deliver on those promises.” South African President Cyril Ramaphosa focused his speech on the "increasingly remote" possibilities of attaining the UN's Agenda 2030 – a set of development goals that were outlined eight years ago - BBC
US President Joe Biden's speech to the 70th meeting of the UN General Assembly Tuesday was that if the world allows the bad guys and dictators to decimate the rules-based international order, nothing else matters.
“We all have to do more,” Biden said of the MDGs - the 17 wide-ranging global goals due to be met by 2030 but which are seriously off track.
On Ukraine, Biden said: “If we allow Ukraine to be carved up, is the independence of any nation secure? I respectfully suggest the answer is no. We have to stand up to this naked aggression today and deter other would-be aggressors tomorrow…The United States, together with our allies and partners around the world, will continue to stand with the brave people of Ukraine as they defend their sovereignty and territorial integrity and their freedom.”
Zelensky, speaking in flawless English and with his wife, Olena, looking on, told the UNGA that the West shouldn’t take Russia’s aggressive actions lightly: “The goal of the present war against Ukraine is to turn our land, our people, our lives, our resources into a weapon against you, against the rules-based international order.” He accused Moscow of "radiation blackmail," a d kidnapping hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian children
Azerbaijan’s defense ministry said Tuesday it had begun an “anti-terrorist” campaign in the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region, as Armenian media and local authorities reported heavy bombardment of the regional capital of Stepanakert. At least five people were killed, including a child, and 80 people were injured, amid artillery, missile and drone strikes by the Azerbaijan military, according to Armenian state news. Nagorno-Karabakh, an ethnic Armenian enclave that is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan, has been the cause of two wars between the neighbors in the past three decades, most recently in 2020 - CNN
The escalating row over the murder of a Sikh separatist leader has the potential to derail years of close relations between Canada and India, two key strategic partners on security and trade. The rift burst into the open on Monday when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Canada was investigating "credible allegations" about the potential involvement of Indian government agents in the murder of Hardeep Singh Nijjar in British Columbia in June. India responded furiously - it "completely rejected" the allegations, calling them "absurd". Both have expelled one of the other's diplomats and it's unclear how they now pull back from the brink. Just a few months ago, the countries were making progress towards signing a free trade agreement - long in the works - this year. Now, talks are paused and an imminent Canadian trade mission to India postponed - BBC