Most world leaders skip Biden’s UN speech: report

NEW YORK: No major world leaders showed up to see Joe Biden speak at the General Assembly, according to a report from The Daily Caller. It said the 78th session of the United Nations General Assembly is taking place in New York City, where presidents and leaders of at least 145 countries will gather. Though Biden, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will be in attendance, prominent leaders from countries on the UN Security Council, such as France, China, Russia and the UK, are not attending the UN General Assembly, according to the AP.

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi will also not be in attendance after hosting the annual G-20 summit earlier in September, CBS News reported.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and China’s President Xi Jinping attended the UN General Assembly virtually during the COVID-19 pandemic, though past attendance in-person is rare for both of them.

“While [UK Prime Minister Rishi] Sunak and [French President Emmanuel] Macron have an excuse, I do think it is telling that they are absent,” Richard Gowan, UN Director for the International Crisis Group, told CBS News.

“That said, I think the General Assembly is a good opportunity for Biden and [US Secretary of State Antony] Blinken to work on firming up US ties with non-Western leaders while Xi and Putin are absent,” Gowan added.