UN: Only One Permanent Member's High-Level Participation at General Assembly is Disheartening

Amina Mohammed, Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations, addressed the press on the final day of the 78th UN General Assembly, which took place from September 19 to 26. She pointed out that there had been significant progress in the General Assembly discussions but expressed her disappointment that out of the five permanent members, only one, the United States, participated at the presidential level. She commented that if high-level participation had been ensured from all those countries, more concrete achievements might have been obtained concerning Sustainable Development Goals or other agenda items.

Mohammed acknowledged that finding immediate solutions to problems was not always possible but emphasized the importance of the General Assembly for leaders to come together and "talk."

Providing statistics on the 78th UN General Assembly, Movses Abelian, UN Deputy Secretary-General for General Assembly and Conference Management, noted that 88 heads of state and 42 heads of government participated. He highlighted that this was the highest-level participation to date.

Abelian mentioned that 21 women addressed the General Assembly, with Burkina Faso delivering the longest speech at 38 minutes and Rwanda the shortest at 9 minutes.

He also reported that more than 100 side events were organized, and over 2,000 bilateral meeting requests were made. Approximately 13,000 representatives and diplomats registered for the event, with around 2,600 press accreditations granted.

Source: TAK