Agencies
United Nations
President Donald Trump returned to the United Nations on Tuesday to boast of his second-term foreign policy achievements and lash out at the world body as a feckless institution.
World leaders listened closely to his remarks at the UN General Assembly as Trump has already moved quickly to diminish US support for the world body in his first eight months in office. Even in his first term, he was no fan of the flavour of multilateralism that the United Nations espouses.
After his latest inauguration, he issued a first-day executive order withdrawing the US from the World Health Organisation. That was followed by his move to end US participation in the UN Human Rights Council, and ordering up a review of US membership in hundreds of intergovernmental organisations aimed at determining whether they align with the priorities of his “America First” agenda. Trump escalated that criticism on Tuesday, saying it’s “empty words don’t solve wars”.
“What is the purpose of the United Nations?” Trump said. “I’ve always said (the UN) has such tremendous, tremendous potential, but it’s not even coming close to living up to that potential.”
Later, in a bilateral meeting with the top UN official, Trump’s tone toward the UN shifted after his speech.
“Our country is behind the United Nations 100%,” Trump told UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. “I may disagree with it sometimes but I am so behind it because the potential for peace at this institution is great.”
China and India are the “primary funders” of the Ukraine war by continuing to purchase Russian oil, Trump said in his address.
The Trump administration has imposed an additional 25 per cent tariff on New Delhi as a penalty for its purchases of Russian oil, taking the total levies imposed on India by the US to 50 per cent, among the highest in the world.
“China and India are the primary funders of the ongoing war by continuing to purchase Russian oil,” Trump said in his over an hour-long address at the General Debate of the 80th session of the UN General Assembly.
In his address, Trump said that “inexcusably, even NATO countries have not cut off much Russian energy and Russian energy products” and he wasn’t happy about this when he found this out.
“Think of it, they’re funding the war against themselves. Who the hell ever heard of that one? In the event that Russia is not ready to make a deal to end the war, then the US is fully prepared to impose a very strong round of powerful tariffs, which would stop the bloodshed, I believe, very quickly,” he said.
He trumpeted himself as a peacemaker and enumerated successes of his administration’s efforts in several hotspots around the globe. At the same, Trump heralded his decisions to order the US military to carry out strikes on Iran and more recently against alleged drug smugglers from Venezuela and argued that globalists are on the verge of destroying successful nations.
Despite his struggles to end the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, Trump has made clear that he wants to be awarded a Nobel Peace Prize, repeatedly making the spurious claim that he’s “ended seven wars” since he returned to office.
He again highlighted his administration’s efforts to end conflicts, including between Israel and Iran, India and Pakistan, Egypt and Sudan, Rwanda and the Democratic Congo, Armenia and Azerbaijan, and Cambodia and Thailand.
The US President’s speech is typically among the most anticipated moments of the annual Assembly. This one comes at one of the most volatile moments in the world body’s 80-year-old history.
Global leaders are being tested by intractable wars in Gaza, Ukraine and Sudan, uncertainty about the economic and social impact of emerging artificial intelligence technology, and anxiety about Trump’s antipathy for the global body.
Trump has also raised new questions about the American use of military force in his return to the White House, after ordering US airstrikes on Iranian nuclear facilities in June and a trio of strikes this month on alleged drug-smuggling boats in the Caribbean Sea.
Trump touted “the renewal of American strength around the world” and his efforts to help end several wars. He peppered his speech with criticism of global institutions doing too little to end war and solve the world’s biggest problems.
General Assembly President Annalena Baerbock on Tuesday said that despite all the internal and external challenges facing the organisation, it is not the time to walk away.
“Sometimes we could’ve done more, but we cannot let this dishearten us. If we stop doing the right things, evil will prevail,” Baerbock said in her opening remarks.
