Threats of "annihilation" and historic walkouts: balance of a UN General Assembly less multilateral than ever

WashingtonThe general debate of the 81st United Nations General Assembly runs the risk of becoming a mere stage for an increasingly unilateral world. But, paradoxically, it is the only stage that continues to exist so that the 193 countries that are part of it can make themselves heard. Even if it is to threaten the "annihilation" of the other, to make warmongering proclamations of "not bowing one's head" or to attempt to whitewash a genocide.

Most wars –which are accumulating as the decade progresses– seem unsolvable in the face of the Security Council's deadlock, stuck in most of its resolutions. The veto of countries like the United States, China, and Russia has allowed the body to be bent according to the geopolitical will of the moment. Beijing and Russia have long ignored the meeting, and Washington, on the last two occasions it has taken the podium, has shown contempt for the body. This year, despite having the opportunity, Chinese President Xi Jinping has decided to deliberately ignore the meeting and fly directly to Washington.

Amidst an increasingly volatile world, far from the founding values of the UN, these are some of the readings that emerge from the high-level week in New York.

Donald Trump and what he did not say

As expected, once again, the intervention of the US president, Donald Trump, has set the tone for the meeting. Although last year the leader disparaged the organization from the Assembly's podium and began cutting its funding, Washington rushed to pay the minimum necessary to maintain its vote in the Assembly. Shortly before the meeting, the US administration paid the United Nations about 725 million dollars in overdue regular dues and 102 million for peacekeeping operations.

Another element is that Trump criticized the organization but did not threaten to leave it, as highlighted by Council on Foreign Relations analyst Esther Brimmer. Despite having promoted his Peace Board as a kind of institution that wants to overshadow the United Nations, Brimmer writes that the White House "considers that peace and security are the main and, preferably, the only axis of the United Nations." And, even, "attributes some value" to the Security Council. Although the Trump administration continues to try to weaken the power of the institution, it still shows interest in participating in it.

Now, the main organization of the old international order that the White House wants to dismantle is another: the International Criminal Court. The US president dedicated a good part of his attacks to the ICC, against which he has launched a campaign of total harassment by sanctioning and persecuting its members. Just as Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, did when he announced his war against the institution, Trump asked on Tuesday from the UN podium that countries that ratified the Rome Statute abandon it.

Netanyahu, increasingly isolated

Dozens of delegations stood up the moment the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, took the podium. One of the most eloquent images of the Assembly and one that shows that the taboo on the genocide in Gaza has been broken since the large-scale war began in 2023. In total, representatives from 77 countries were absent during his speech, a gesture that Netanyahu responded to with the same contempt he received: "If there is any other moral coward who hasn't left the room yet, do it now".

Beyond the empty seats during his intervention, the conditions in which Netanyahu traveled this time to New York also evidence his loneliness and fragility. This year, the visit to the US has been intentionally brief, less than 24 hours, and there hasn't even been a meeting with Trump on the sidelines of the Assembly. Although Washington and Tel Aviv continue to proclaim themselves great allies, the divergence of interests in the Iran war has generated friction in the relationship between the two partners.

The short duration of the visit, moreover, was framed by calls from New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani to arrest Netanyahu following the order that the ICC issued against him two years ago. Mamdani, who already acknowledged that he had no authority to arrest the Israeli prime minister, returned to place the issue at the center of the agenda. Although the Israeli leader has capitalized on Mamdani's calls as an electoralist claim ahead of the elections being held in October for the Knesset, Netanyahu's short stay remains notable.

The window of opportunity for Xi Jinping

Unlike Trump, the Chinese leader, Xi Jinping, has not needed to open his mouth to express his position on the United Nations. Xi's deliberate absence from the meeting is a reflection of how Beijing takes advantage of the cracks that its American counterpart has widened within the multilateral system. He has not abandoned the UN, nor has he actively scorned it as Trump has, but he does incentivize this new order in which dialogue takes place between the strongest and not in a forum where the entire international community participates.

The speech offered by the Chinese leader reinforced this transformation towards an order marked by spheres of influence under the control of great powers. Xi reminded Trump of the need to maintain "strategic stability", or in other words, not to step on the other's turf. A dynamic that, in turn, also benefits other actors like Russia, which in recent weeks has escalated its hybrid war.

AI vs. climate emergency

Of the three existential threats that Secretary António Guterres placed at the top of the 2026 agenda –uncontrolled artificial intelligence, inequality, and the climate emergency–, the latter is the one that has been most diluted in the week's media noise. The climate crisis has been practically buried under the rubble of wars and the dystopian futures of AI. The urgency has become so immediate in these fields that the 2030 ambitions to halve emissions have become blurred.

This does not mean that the UN has abandoned it entirely: the Climate Summit, convened by the Secretary-General on September 23, estimates that global energy investments will reach 3.4 trillion dollars in 2026, with 2.2 trillion allocated to clean energy –almost double that of fossil fuels–, but financing for adaptation in the most vulnerable countries continues to be, year after year, the great bottleneck. Scientific urgency and political indifference have never gone so much in opposite directions.

The next secretary-general

This was the last general debate for Guterres as secretary-general, a position that expires at the end of December. The successor, whether male or female, faces the challenge of restoring the organization's credibility. During his speech, the Spanish Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, called for the next secretary-general to be a Latin American woman, in a clear allusion to the Costa Rican Rebeca Grynspan, one of the main names currently being mentioned.

However, ultimately, the process remains in the hands of the five permanent members of the Security Council: the United States, Russia, China, France, and the United Kingdom. The American ambassador to the UN, Mike Waltz, has already said that the next secretary-general must be aligned with "American values and interests." The paradox is evident: the organization most in need of reform must find the new leader tasked with recovering credibility through the same mechanism – the veto of the great powers – that has led it to paralysis.