Displaying items by tag: UN general assembly

President Ashraf Ghani said Afghanistan had UN values enshrined in its constitution, but the pandemic has exposed vulnerabilities. He said: ‘The industrial revolution is a driver of inequality and unemployment and we must think ahead of our time. Violence and warfare are another source of turbulence in the fifth wave of global terrorism. Peace talks with the Taliban are not enough: we must get to the root of the terrorism blighting our region and address it as the global phenomenon and threat that it is. Climate change brings floods and drought needing regional solutions based on international models. Afghanistan is the 17th worst-affected country. All the above culminates as an explosion of inequality. But Afghanistan is in the heart of Asia. Our water ties us together; our cultures and languages give us a common denominator; South Asia needs energy resources, and Central Asia’s abundance of them makes Afghanistan a connector.’ For the full statement, see

Ninety heads of state attended the annual UN general assembly this week. Every September kings, presidents and prime ministers fly to New York City and attend the UN headquarters. The top priority at its 74th General Assembly is the world's climate emergency. Country leaders were told not to speak without ‘concrete and transformative plans’ to halt rising global temperatures, achieve carbon neutrality and cut carbon emissions by 45%. But VIPs with proposals only had three minutes to speak. Then the UN will collate speeches and brainstorms into a report. Angela Merkel attended the climate summit, but skipped the rest of the week. Donald Trump skipped the climate summit and attended different sessions. How concrete the summit results will actually be is unclear. Meanwhile an angry Greta Thunberg told global leaders, ‘We are in the beginning of a mass extinction and all you can talk about is money and fairy tales of eternal economic growth. How dare you?’ See