Biden Speech To Kick Off UNGA With Questions Over Attendance

10:00 ET 15:00 BST: President Biden will take to the podium in New York City today to kick-off the 78th session of the United Nations General Assembly.

• The UNGA is likely to be coloured by nagging questions over the UN's status as the paramount multilateral body. Biden will be, conspicuously, the only leader from a permanent member of the Security Council in attendance. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will also be absent despite attending both the BRICS and the G20 summit in recent months.
• With China and Russia's drive to expand BRICS threatening a broader multilateral fragmentation, China's decisions to counterprogramme the UNGA with a Russia trip, led by top diplomat Wang Yi, is also a signal that smaller, less politically divided multilateral bodies could undermine the UN.
• UN Secretary General António Guterres told reporters this week on the prospect of fragmentation: “We have some symptoms, but we are not yet in an irreversible situation. So, we are clearly on time to avoid it. But we are seeing some aspects in which we see the risks of division piling up.”