With the 75th annual U.N. General Assembly reduced to recorded speeches because of the pandemic, leaders are using this week as an opportunity to depict the pandemic from the vantage points of their nations and themselves -- and present their visions of efforts to fight the virus and advocate what they believe must be done.
A smattering of myriad ideas from speeches Tuesday, the first day of the general debate, were:
• South African President Cyril Ramaphosa called for a suspension of interest payments on African nations' debt and renewed focus on eradicating global poverty.
• Chilean President Sebastian Pinera called on powerful nations to work together and stop generating "a worrisome lack of leadership."
• Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte echoed a call from many leaders when he said that once an effective vaccine is developed, it must be made available to all nations.
[CORONAVIRUS: Click here for our complete coverage » arkansasonline.com/coronavirus]
This year's theme -- "reaffirming our collective commitment to multilateralism" -- comes at a time of extreme physical isolation between citizens in respective countries and between nations, a moment when international travel has declined sharply. It also comes as the world approaches 1 million deaths from the virus since December, adding urgency to the search for solutions.
"The leaders of our nations are not personally present. They will not be able to interact with each other," General Assembly President Volkan Bozkir, a Turkish diplomat, said in opening Tuesday's session. "But our need for deliberation is higher than ever."
Despite this year's theme, speeches by leaders of some of the world's most powerful nations have thus far been peppered with initiatives that sound more go-it-alone than collaborative, though all gave nods to working together.
Russian President Vladimir Putin went so far as to offer U.N. personnel a coronavirus vaccine his country is developing. Chinese President Xi Jinping said a handful of vaccines were in phase 3 of clinical trials and that Beijing would give millions to a U.N. fund to combat the virus.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, while lauding his own nation's cooperation and calling for nations to work together, took a swipe at how the U.N. currently functions. Earlier this year, Erdogan said, it took months for the Security Council to even discuss the pandemic.
[Video not showing up above? Click here to view » https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tu4yDv2CBiE]
President Donald Trump told the assembly that America had "waged a fight against a great enemy, the China virus," and called on the U.N. to hold China accountable for the virus and other things.
There is also the Covid-19 Vaccines Global Access Facility, or COVAX, a grouping of more than 150 countries pooling resources around combating the disease and distribution of a future vaccine. The U.S. is not participating in the effort, led by the World Health Organization. Trump says WHO is influenced heavily by China and that joining the effort could constrain U.S. efforts to develop a vaccine.
Some leaders identified other virus-related problems that needed tackling.
South Korean President President Moon Jae-in expressed concern about possible second and third waves of the coronavirus. Like many others, he also noted the damage to economies worldwide.
"Like a tsunami that follows an earthquake, economic aftershocks are sweeping us," he said.
