70th UN General Assembly - Leaders discuss issues affecting the world |29 September 2015

World leaders started deliberating on issues affecting their countries and the world at large yesterday when the 70th United Nations General Assembly debate opened.

President James Michel is among the world leaders attending the meeting and he will approach the podium to address the UN assembly today under the illuminated dome of the General Assembly hall.

The opening ceremony saw the president of the 70th General Assembly session, Mogens Lyketoft, United Nations (UN) secretary general Ban Ki-Moon and United States of America President Barack Obama address world leaders at the UN headquarters in New York.

This is the largest gathering of presidents and prime ministers ever at the United Nations. Some of them are assembling in New York under one roof for the first time in years, and their job is to wrestle with global crises that they stubbornly disagree on, including climate change, the war in Syria, and a historic exodus of people fleeing conflict and hunger.

The assembly opened with all eyes on the war in Syria and the twin crises it has helped spawn: the unyielding spread of the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, and the surge of refugees from the region into Europe.

US President Obama said “dangerous currents risk pulling us back into a darker more disordered world,” adding that conflicts and tyrants are “driving innocent men, women and children across borders on an epic scale”.

Mr Obama also advocated against those “who argue that the ideals enshrined in the UN Charter are unachievable or out of date”.

UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon said “inequality is growing, trust is fading, and impatience with leadership can be seen and felt far and wide”.

Mr Ban, who is approaching his last year as the secretary general, called on leaders to not stay in power beyond their constitutional terms in office, pressed permanent members of the Security Council to put aside their divisions, called explicitly for an “end to bombings” in Yemen, and named the five countries that, as he said, “hold the key” to peace in Syria: Russia, the United States, Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Turkey.

He said 100 million civilians are in need of aid, for which the United Nations has pleaded for US $20 billion. He rebuked the rich for not giving more, giving examples: One third of what the organisation needs for Syria and Iraq has been received and for Gambia, whose children are among the hungriest in the world, nothing has come in.

He also stepped up his criticism of countries that shut their borders to refugees. “I urge Europe to do more,” reminding the continent’s leaders that “after the Second World War it was Europeans seeking assistance”.

Brazil President Dilma Rousseff scolded those countries that have tried to prohibit refugees fleeing conflicts in the Middle East, pointing out that Brazil hosts Syrians and Haitians now as it opened the doors to Europeans and Asians a century ago.

“In a world where goods, capital, data and ideas flow freely, it is absurd to impede the free flow of people,” she said.

Presidents Xi Jinping of China, Vladimir Putin of Russia, Hassan Rouhani of Iran, and François Hollande of France, as well as King Abdullah II of Jordan were to speak yesterday.

Pope Francis addressed the development summit meeting that started last Friday and Louise Fréchette, a former deputy secretary general of the United Nations, said the pope’s emphasis on issues like climate change and refugees could put pressure on governments to act.

It is also a boon for the United Nations. “His presence underlines the continued centrality of the institution,” said Ms Fréchette.

United Nations officials have called the two sessions historic as they feature an all-star line-up of autocrats, princes and populists, some of whom rarely show up at the General Assembly.

President Michel is accompanied at the UN General Assembly by the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Transport, Joël Morgan; the secretary general in the Office of the President, Lise Bastienne; the diplomatic adviser to the President, Ambassador Callixte D’Offay; the Seychelles ambassador to the US and permanent representative of Seychelles to the United Nations, Marie-Louise Potter, and the ambassador for Small Island Developing States and Climate Change, Ronald Jumeau.

Gerard Govinden in New York