The Diplomat
The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, leaves today for New York to participate in the high-level meetings and the general debate of the seventy-seventh session of the UN General Assembly, as well as to hold several bilateral meetings, including with the new British Prime Minister, Liz Truss.
Sánchez, who is traveling accompanied by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, will begin his agenda in New York today with his participation in an event on education and digitalization. Tomorrow Tuesday, the head of the Executive will chair a summit on Food Security together with the Secretary of State of the United States, Antony Blinken; the President of the European Council, Charles Michel; and the President of Senegal, Macky Sall. In the afternoon, Pedro Sánchez will attend an event organized by France and New Zealand to fight against jihadism on the Internet and a meeting with Spanish citizens at the residence of the ambassador to the UN.
Last Wednesday, Pedro Sánchez received in Moncloa the Secretary General of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), Rebeca Grynspan, with whom he discussed the need to combat food insecurity and food shortages caused by the war of Vladimir Putin’s Russian regime in Ukraine and invited her to participate in the Summit on Food Security. Currently, 276 million people worldwide are severely food insecure, a figure that could rise to 323 million by 2022. Russia and Ukraine together account for 28% of global wheat exports and 15% of corn, and Ukraine produces half of the world’s sunflower oil.
On Wednesday, Pedro Sánchez and the President of Chile, Gabriel Boric, will be the stars of a tribute ceremony at the Instituto Cervantes in New York on the 50th anniversary of Salvador Allende’s speech to the UN General Assembly. The daughter of the former Chilean president, Isabel Allende, has been invited to the event. Prior to this event, the two leaders will hold their first bilateral meeting since Boric’s arrival to the Presidency on March 11.
In total, Moncloa has organized at least seven bilateral meetings with Sánchez during his stay in the US on the occasion of the General Assembly. Apart from his meetings with the new president of Costa Rica, Rodrigo Chaves; the president of Bolivia, Luis Arce; the president of Niger, Mohamed Bazum -whose country has become the main ally in the Sahel in the fight against jihadist terrorism after the departure of French troops from Mali-; the president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmud Abbas; and the leaders of Pakistan and Iraq, in addition to the aforementioned Chile.
In any case, the most important meeting will be the one with Liz Truss, who took office as head of the British Government on September 6. According to Moncloa sources, the meeting has been requested by the Executive of the United Kingdom and the meeting could take place tomorrow. Truss will travel to New York after participating in the funeral for Queen Elizabeth II, which will take place today in London.
Sánchez will also meet with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the editorial board of The New York Times and the Spain-US Chamber of Commerce Forum. The President of the Government’s stay in New York will conclude on Thursday, when he will have breakfast with representatives of investment funds and rating agencies and will deliver his speech to the UN General Assembly.
In total, the General Assembly – the first to be fully face-to-face since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic – will bring together 157 heads of state and government. The 104 heads of state include U.S. President Joe Biden, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, King Abdullah II of Jordan, and the presidents of Iran, France, Brazil, Colombia, South Korea, South Africa, Egypt and Venezuela. In addition to Truss and Sanchez, the German Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, and the Prime Ministers of Japan, Israel, Iraq and Pakistan will also be present. China will send its deputy prime minister and Russia will probably be represented by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, as in recent years.
On the other hand, Queen Letizia will also travel to New York to attend some events organized in the margins of the UN General Assembly, both by UNICEF, an organization to which she is very close and of which she is honorary president of the Spanish section, and in connection with World Cancer Research Day, which is celebrated on September 24.
